Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says following the announcement of the detection of the Omicron coronavirus variant, 57 countries have reported COVID-19 cases caused by the variant of concern.
Phaahla is provided an update on the rise in COVID-19 infections on Friday morning.
Video| Health Ministry media briefing on COVID-19 in SA
The Minister says more details regarding the Omicron variant will be made available soon – but it now seems likely it is more transmissible compared to the Delta coronavirus variant.
He says Omicron is fast replacing the Delta variant, particularly in Gauteng. This is based on the rapid rise of new daily infections.
“Weekly cases in Gauteng province have increased by more than 400%, for the week on 4 December 2021, compared to the previous week. So a very significant increase just in that week. While hospital admissions increased by more than 200%,” he explains.
Lockdown regulations during the festive season not clear: Health Minister
Minister Phaahla says it’s not clear at this stage if there will be any adjustments to the coronavirus lockdown regulations in South Africa to minimise public movement during the festive season.
The country has continued to post an increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases driven by the Omnicron variant.
However, he says there’s no need to panic.
Minister Phaahla says it is not yet clear how many of the over 22 000 newly-reported cases in the country can be specifically linked to the Omnicron variant.
“The NCCC will be meeting Tuesday or Wednesday and we will make recommendations based on what we are reporting even today here. We will also depend on our ministerial advisory committee. So as for what kind of changes to level 1 or whether proposals to either level 2, we are not in a position to say so. We will be looking not only at the numbers but also at all those risks, economy and social behaviour,” says Phaahla
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COVID-19 Statistics in SA
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 22 391 new COVID-19 cases in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 093 452.
This increase represents a 29.8% positivity rate.
There has been a further 22 COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 90 060. A total of 75 251 tests have also been conducted.
About 19 988 045 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
The majority of new cases on Thursday were recorded in Gauteng (53%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (12%).
