Omicron cases in South Africa ground zero on December 6, but they are still increasing in other parts of the country.
Three weeks after the start of the wave, cases of the variant reached their highest level in Gauteng, which was first to feel the full force of the variant.
A total of 68,181 tests were conducted in the last 24hrs, according to The National Institute For Communicable Diseases Of South Africa (NICD).
It said there were 20,713 new cases, representing a 30.4 per cent positivity rate.
Charts tracking the rate of Omicron across South Africa show cases are falling in Gauteng, while rising elsewhere.
After reaching a peak of 10,100 per day on December 7 on a seven-day moving average, cases are now around 8,000 per day, according to Louis Rossouw, who has written a scientific paper on the Omicron variant in the country.
A further 35 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported in South Africa, bringing the total fatalities to 90,297.
The variant’s cases reached its highest point in Gauteng three weeks after it was launched. Gauteng was the first place to experience the full power of the variant. Louis Rossouw has published a paper about the Omicron variant of the Omicron in South Africa.
Today, the majority of cases are from Gauteng (28%), KwaZulu-Natal (25%), and so on.
Yesterday, the country’s health minister Joe Phaahla revealed 1.7 per cent of Covid cases went on to be hospitalized during the second week of the current wave. For comparison, he said the equivalent figure was 19 per cent in the second week of South Africa’s Delta crisis.
Lower hospitalization rates are believed to result from higher levels of immunity due to previous infections and vaccinations.
Phaahla said Omicron might have been milder than previously thought, supporting claims by frontline doctors.
Wassila Jassat from South Africa’s public health was also present at the conference. She stated that South Africa now has fewer people who need oxygen than before Delta. The hospitalizations of patients are shorter, she said.
The latest hope is that Omicron could be more mild than originally feared.
Phaahla has not presented an analysis supporting his assertion that Delta’s hospitalization rate is lower now than at the beginning of Delta’s flight.
However, Omicron Wave participants were able to take two-thirds of the samples every day. This may have affected the results.
Additional 35 Covid-19-related deaths were reported. The total number of victims now stands at 90,297.
After another 374 admissions, hospitalisations fell by 23.4 percent in the week to today. However, this may also be due to holidays when there were fewer people to process data.
In South Africa, Daily Covid cases rose by 10 percent in the past week. The country currently enjoys a holiday that could have skew the numbers.
According to data from the National Institute for Communicable diseases, less than 2% of South African patients had been admitted in the second week following the Omicron waves in South Africa. Comparatively, the Delta wave was 12 percent when it struck.
According to official figures, 54,800 test were performed every day during the second wave of this wave. This compares with 32,600 for the Delta wave.
Omicron first became apparent in South Africa’s November 25, while Delta first appeared on May 8, 2008.
Omicron, the virus that first attacked the country in 1999, saw cases rise dramatically. In fact, almost 26,000 were reported earlier this week. They rose 10% week-on-week, after an additional 24,700 cases were reported.
The number of hospitalizations declined in the country on Thursday, but are now trending up to 600 per day, compared with 100 admissions before Omicron was created.
They are not yet in the hospitalizations that were recorded during the second wave of flooding, when there was an average of 700 per day.
According to doctors on the ground, fewer patients are admitted to ICU and need oxygen now than before Delta launched. This suggests that it is more gentle.
Phaahla told the conference: ‘We believe that [the reduced severity]It could be Omicron being less virulent.