It is in this country and in the neighboring Botswana that this variant of the coronavirus had been identified for the first time at the end of November. According to the Presidency, hospitalizations were fewer than in previous waves.
Le Monde with AFP
South Africa, where last month was detected the new VVID-19 variant, announced Thursday, November 30, having passed the peak of the Omicron wave without a significant increase in the number of deaths. “All the indicators suggest that the country has probably passed the peak of the fourth wave” of the pandemic, said the presidency in a statement, announcing the lifting of certain sanitary restrictions and in particular the night curfew. “A marginal increase in the number of deaths has been recognized in all provinces,” she continued.
New contaminations fell by nearly 30% last week (89,781), compared to the previous week (127,753). And the admissions to the hospital decreased in eight new provinces: “Although the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, hospitalization rates were lower than in previous waves,” said the presidency.
Omicron, which has a high number of mutations fearing resistance to vaccines, was first identified in Botswana and South Africa at the end of November. It quickly became dominant in South Africa, causing an exponential increase in the number of contaminations up to more than 26,000 daily cases in mid-December, according to official statistics.
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The variant is currently present in a hundred countries, according to WHO. Extremely contagious, it affects vaccinated people as well as those have already been contaminated with the virus.
Officially most affected African countries, South Africa has more than 3.4 million cases and 91,000 deaths. Less than 13,000 cases have been detected in the past 24 hours.
“The speed at which the fourth wave due to Omicron has increased, reaches a peak and declined, has been amazing. A peak in four weeks and a precipitated decline in two weeks”, posted on Twitter Fareed Abdullah of the South Council -African medical research (samrc).
While many countries affected by Omicron announce a strengthening of health restrictions, the South African government has decided to lift the night curfew so far come from midnight at 4 o’clock in the morning. Establishments with a license for the sale of alcohol after 23 hours can resume usual operation. The port of the mask, however, remains mandatory in the public space and the gatherings are still limited: 1,000 people maximum inside, 2,000 outside.
Requests for a curfew lifts had multiplied in recent days, in anticipation of New Year’s Eve, with a petition of restaurant owners and bars. “The risk of increasing infections remains high given the strong transmissibility of the Omicron variant”, however, warned the Presidency, calling for being vaccinated.