Authorities in South Africa announced Wednesday that new cases of Covid-19 nearly doubled in a day, indicating a substantial increase in the country where scientists discovered the omicron version 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.
The World Health Organization’s regional virologist, Dr. Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, told The Associated Press that “there is a probability that we’re going to witness a major doubling or triple of the cases as we move along or as the week unfolds.” “There’s a chance we’ll see a significant spike in the number of cases identified in South Africa.”
From Tuesday to Wednesday, the number of new cases recorded in South Africa more than doubled. Omicron, a heavily mutated variation of the coronavirus, is rapidly becoming the prevalent variant in South Africa, less than four weeks after it was originally discovered there.
Early epidemiological data revealed Omicron was able to circumvent some immunity, but existing vaccinations should still protect against severe sickness and mortality, according to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). It claimed the new variant was found in 74 percent of the virus genomes it sequenced last month, which was originally discovered in a sample taken on November 8 in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous region. (Reuters)
