South Africa President Ramaphosa says hospitalisation rate still low despite Omicron scare

On Sunday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa claimed that hospital admissions in the country are not rising despite a surge in COVID-19 cases induced by the new Omicron variant of the Coronavirus. "Our hospital admissions are not increasing at an alarming rate. This means that not everyone, who are testing positive, required hospitalisation," he stated as reported by ANI citing South African outlet Eyewitness. President Ramaphosa stated that it is encouraging to see that the new variant is not resulting in a greater number of hospital admissions, whilst also stating that tests and research are still needed to know the various aspects of the Omicron strain.

Ramaphosa, who is presently in Ghana on an official visit, also chastised countries that imposed travel restrictions on South Africa and a number of other African countries after the first case of the new variant was detected. Meanwhile, South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla urged people not to panic stating that though the new variant is more transmissible, it appears to cause milder sickness. COVID-19 cases in South Africa have surged from 19,302 to over 75,000 since the Omicron variant was detected in the country at the end of November.

Last week, President Ramaphosa raised the possibility that the nation could enter the fourth wave soon if the new Coronavirus cases continue to increase. In a televised speech, he said that the country has seen an average of 1,600 new cases since the discovery of Omicron. The proportion of COVID-19 tests that are positive has also risen from around 2% to 9% in less than a week, Ramaphosa said, adding that this is an "extremely sharp increase" in infections in a short period of time. He further declared that his country will remain on the lowest "Level One" of the pandemic's five lockdown strategies, but will aim to provide booster doses to the elderly and enhance vaccination standards, the Associated Press (AP) reported. 

Omicron could overtake Delta as most dominant variant by 2022: Study

It is pertinent to mention here that the statistical analysis undertaken by South African scientists suggested that the Omicron variant could overtake delta as the most dominant variant by 2022. They also stated that the new variant is three times more likely to reinfect humans than prior COVID variants. The researchers looked at 2.8 million positive coronavirus samples from South Africa, out of which, 35,670 were believed to be reinfections. However, the researchers didn't have access to vaccination records, according to a report by Sputnik.

Image: Pixabay/AP