South Africa's COVID cases double in single day; experts say Omicron variant spurred surge

South African authorities said on December 1 that the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country nearly doubled in a day, indicating a significant increase in the country, where scientists discovered the Omicron variant last week. According to official statistics, the number of new confirmed cases increased to 8,561 on Wednesday, up from 4,373 the day before. South Africa experienced a period of low transmission in early November, with a seven-day average of roughly 200 new cases per day, but new cases began to rapidly climb in the middle of November. The additional cases that were revealed on Wednesday reflect a positivity rate of 16.5% of patients tested, up from a rate of 1% in early November.

The preceding rise in South Africa, caused by the Delta variant in June and July, saw daily new cases reach a peak of almost 20,000. South Africa, with a population of 60 million people, has registered over 2.9 million COVID-19 cases, including approximately 90,000 deaths. It is too early to speculate whether the Omicron variant is to blame for the increase in the number of COVID cases, however, the specialists believe it is quite likely. Standard PCR testing can indicate that a positive case is due to Omicron, but only thorough genetic sequencing can prove it. Nonetheless, scientists are bracing for a surge in COVID-19 cases in South Africa as a result of the discovery of the novel Omicron variant.

The Associated Press reported, citing regional virologist for WHO, Dr. Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, as saying, "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. There is a possibility that we are going to see a vast increase in number of cases being identified in South Africa.”

Labs in SA, Botswana urgently performing genetic sequencing on Omicron

According to Dr. Gumede-Moeletsi, labs in South Africa and Botswana are urgently performing genetic sequencing on Omicron patients to see whether it is much more transmissible, produces more severe COVID-19 cases, or evades vaccination protection, the media agency reported. She added, ''the present data we have is still pretty limited, so there are a plethora of additional properties of this virus that experts are investigating, one of which being transmissibility and another is severity.'' She further claimed that researchers must determine whether current vaccines would still be effective against it.

In South Africa, hospitalisations for COVID-19 are increasing, but not at the same rate as the number of new cases. According to the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the Omicron variant was detected in five of South Africa's nine provinces and accounted for 74% of virus genomes sequenced in November.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Image: AP