On Friday, South Africa reported 16,055 new Covid-19 cases, up from 4,373 new cases on Tuesday.
Friday’s numbers took the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic to more than 3 million, according to data released by the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).
“Today the institute reported 16,055 new COVID-19 cases identified in South Africa, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,004,203,” Friday’s statement said. % Is.” represents the rate.
On Thursday, the NICD also revealed that some of the new cases were people who had previously had COVID-19 and had re-infected with the Omicron variant.
“Earlier infections protected Delta, but now this does not seem to be the case with Omicron,” Professor Anne von Gottberg, a microbiologist at the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, told a news briefing on Thursday.
“We monitored … re-transitions for beta and delta wave, and we do not see an increase in re-transitions higher than expected when the wave stops when the transition strength changes. However, we do not see an increase in re-transitions for Omicron. Hoping,” she said.
Data from South Africa are however showing that reinfection may be less severe, Professor Gottberg said.
“We believe … that disease will be less severe,” Gottberg said. “And that is what we are trying to prove in South Africa and are monitoring very carefully. And the same will apply to those who have been vaccinated,” he said, emphasizing that vaccines are serious diseases. And will continue to help prevent hospital admissions as cases continue to rise. To grow at a “fast” rate.
The NICD said that as the number of new cases continues to rise, the number of deaths seems to be more stable as compared to the 25 new Covid-19 related deaths on Friday.
While a limited number of confirmed coronavirus cases are being sequenced in the country, Gottberg said, of the 249 cases sequenced in November, 183 were confirmed to be the Omicron variant – the equivalent of 70-75% of cases. According to NICD, a total of 65,990 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization also announced that they will deploy a surge team to the country’s Gauteng province – the current epicenter of the Omicron outbreak – to help with surveillance, sequencing and contact tracing.
WHO will also provide technical assistance to promote the production and delivery of medical oxygen in Botswana, where omicrons have also been detected, said Dr Salaam Guay, WHO’s regional emergency director for Africa.
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