A glimmer of hope in the face of the Omicron variant outbreak?

South Africa, where the new variant of Covid-19 was detected last month, announced on Friday that it had passed the peak of the Omicron wave, with only a "marginal" increase in deaths, while many countries are experiencing record infections.

"According to our experts, Omicron has reached its peak without translating into a significant or alarming change in the number of hospitalizations", commented on Friday the Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele, assuring that the government would remain vigilant to the slightest development to the contrary. .

Lifting of the curfew

The nighttime curfew, in place for almost two years, 21 months to be precise, had been reduced to the hours between midnight and 4 a.m. On the eve of the New Year's celebrations, he is finally up. "Our hope is that this lifting will continue," said the minister during a virtual press briefing. "We seek to find a balance between people's lives, their livelihoods, and the goal of saving lives," he explained, recalling that the South African economy remained heavily affected by the pandemic. By maintaining the wearing of the mask, the distancing, and by accelerating the vaccination which remains below the objectives, with only 15.6 million people completely vaccinated for a population of 59 million, the minister hopes that "the curfew will not return. never ".

30% drop in contamination last week

Thursday evening, the presidency announced that "all indicators suggest that the country has probably passed the peak of the fourth wave" of the pandemic and that a "marginal increase in the number of deaths has been observed".

The number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths will continue to be "followed hour by hour and if we observe a difference" in the evolution, "we will act in function immediately", insisted Friday the minister.

New contaminations fell by nearly 30% last week (89,781), compared to the previous week (127,753).

And hospital admissions have declined in eight out of nine provinces: "Although the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, hospitalization rates have been lower than in previous waves," said the presidency.

"Amazing speed"

Omicron, which has a high number of mutations raising concerns about vaccine resistance, was first identified in Botswana and South Africa in late November.

It quickly became dominant in South Africa, causing the number of infections to rise exponentially to more than 26,000 daily cases in mid-December, according to official statistics.

The variant is currently present in around 100 countries, according to the WHO.

Extremely contagious, it affects people who have been vaccinated as well as those who have already been infected with the virus.

African country officially the most affected, South Africa has more than 3.4 million cases and 91,000 deaths.

Less than 13,000 cases have been detected in the past 24 hours.

“The rate at which the fourth wave from Omicron rose, then peaked and then declined, was astounding.

A peak in four weeks and a precipitous decline in two weeks, ”tweeted Fareed Abdullah of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).

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