South Africa govt eases curfew restrictions; asserts Omicron-driven fourth wave has passed

As the cases of Omicron declined sharply in the past two weeks, South Africa has announced to ease restrictions from 31 December, Friday. According to the country's health ministry, the fourth wave of the Coronavirus, driven by the new variant, Omicron, has passed. The ministry said the cases dropped nearly 30% compared to the last week. While announcing the relaxations, the government said it has removed the midnight to 4 am curfew based on the trajectory of the cases. According to the statement released by the government, all indicators suggested the nation might have passed the peak of the fourth wave.

The cabinet noted that the new variant was highly transmissible but added the rate of hospitalisation was relatively low as compared to earlier COVID variants. The health ministry informed that the cases of all kinds of COVID variants dropped 29.7% compared to Christmas week.  Notably, in the third week of November, scientists in South Africa identified the new COVID variant called B.1.1529, or Omicron. The announcement prompted several countries to either restrict international travel or tighten their grip by formulating the popular "TTT" strategy-- Tracing, Testing and Treatment. Despite the regular updates from the global health agencies, the situation is not clear whether the new variant is more lethal than earlier variants or whether the vaccine affects the Omicron variant or not.

Senior researcher says, 'It was a short wave'

However, South Africa, where the new variant was first detected, noted a dramatic decline in the fresh cases. "The drop in new cases nationally combined with the sustained drop in new cases seen here in Gauteng province, which for weeks has been the centre of this wave, indicates that we are past the peak," Marta Nunes, senior researcher at the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics department of the University of Witwatersrand, told AP. "It was a short wave and the good news is that it was not very severe in terms of hospitalisations and deaths. It is not unexpected in epidemiology that a very steep increase, like what we saw in November, is followed by a steep decrease," she added.

With the announcement of the new guidelines, alcohol shops with licences operate beyond 11 pm. However, public gatherings are still capped at 1,000 people indoors, and no more than 2,000 people outdoors. Apart from these, wearing face masks is mandatory outdoors and while using public services. 

Image: AP/Pixabay/Representative