South Africa COVID-19 Cases Almost Double in 24 Hours

Dec. 2, 2021 — South Africa’s COVID-19 circumstances nearly doubled inside 24 hours, leaping from a reported 4,300 new circumstances on Tuesday to eight,500 new every day circumstances on Wednesday, in line with the BBC.

Health officers have confirmed that the brand new Omicron variant has change into the dominant coronavirus pressure in South Africa and is driving a pointy enhance in new infections.

“There is a possibility that really, we’re going to be seeing a serious doubling or tripling of the cases as we move along or as the week unfolds,” Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, PhD, a regional virologist for the World Health Organization, instructed The Associated Press.

“There is a possibility that we are going to see a vast increase in the number of cases being identified in South Africa,” she stated.

In early November, the nation reported 200 to 300 new circumstances per day and had a 1% positivity price. But circumstances started to extend shortly in mid-November, and Wednesday’s positivity price reached 16.5%, the AP reported.

South Africa was the primary nation to detect the brand new Omicron variant and report it to the WHO. The nation’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases stated Wednesday that 74% of the virus genomes sequenced in November have been of the brand new variant, the BBC reported.

As of Thursday morning, 25 international locations have reported 329 circumstances of the Omicron variant to GISAID, a worldwide database for genomic sequencing. The newest international locations to substantiate their first circumstances embody the U.S., India, and Ghana.

Hospitalizations are rising in South Africa however not on the price of the brand new circumstances. So far, hospital admissions are following the identical development as earlier COVID-19 surges within the nation, in line with an evaluation by the Financial Times.

Scientists have expressed considerations in regards to the giant variety of mutations on the Omicron variant, although they will’t fairly say whether or not the variant is extra transmissible, causes extra extreme COVID-19, or evades vaccines. Labs in South Africa are specializing in genomic sequencing of Omicron circumstances to reply these questions.

“The world is watching South Africa,” Deenan Pillay, PhD, a professor of virology at University College London, instructed the Financial Times.

“There are a lot of things we don’t know about Omicron,” he stated. “Real world clinical data from South Africa will provide us with some of the first answers.”