27% decrease in new cases in South Africa… Similar trends are also observed in other South African countries and the UK.
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(Johannesburg = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Seong-jin = South Africa’s Health Minister Joe Pahla announced on the 14th (local time) that Hauteng, the metropolitan area, which was the first epicenter of the Omicron mutation, has escaped the fourth wave of infection, Daily The Citizen reported.
Health Minister Pahla added that other states are heading in the same direction.
He said the number of new cases of COVID-19 in South Africa fell by 27% from the previous week. However, he added that COVID-19 still poses significant risks for the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions.
The trend of decreasing new cases is the same in other southern African countries.
Eswatini fell the most (45%) as the number of new cases decreased for the second week in a row. Zambia fell next by 30%, followed by Namibia with 26% and the UK with 25%.
Four countries in southern Africa, including South Africa, were the first countries to be hit by the Omicron mutation in early December, and the UK was the first country in Europe to be severely hit.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is the first among major economies to argue that the coronavirus should no longer be treated as a pandemic, but as an endemic disease like the flu.
However, Mike Van Wick of the health group Medicare24 said it was too early to see COVID-19 as an endemic.
“What we’ve seen over the past two years is new mutations and mutations and varying degrees of contagiousness,” he said. no,” he said.
He also advised that before rushing to change quarantine rules, the world should wait for the severity or mitigation of Omicron’s follow-up mutation.
South Africa is currently in phase 1, the lowest level of lockdown, but Van Wick added that it should not be overlooked that delta mutations could spike again, or further spikes in infections.
When South Africa, which is currently summer, goes into autumn and winter, depending on how much South Africa has been vaccinated, it is possible to estimate whether the risk of a fifth wave of infection will materialize.
Foster Mohale, spokeswoman for South Africa’s Ministry of Health, said a fifth wave of infections is expected around Easter. Of South Africa’s current population of 60 million, 19 million have just received the first dose, and 16.2 million have completed the second dose.
Mohale said the data provides a good basis for immunity, adding that it can be inferred that nearly half of the population has already contracted some form of the coronavirus.
South Africa extended its national disaster for another 30 days. Although there are speculations that this may be a return to normal life in some recent times, it suggests that the government is not yet ready to loosen the remaining regulations, the newspaper added.
sungjin@yna.co.kr
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2022/01/15 18:43 Send
