Now that the holidays are over, South Africa is reporting that their Omicron COVID surge has peaked, and is on the way down. The best news out of this, despite the hysteria in the American communist media is that in South Africa, Omicron caused relatively few deaths and hospitalizations.
South Africa appears to have passed the peak of its omicron variant-driven fourth coronavirus wave, the country’s cabinet announced Thursday, adding that there was only a “marginal increase” in fatalities, which remained low compared to previous spikes.
The number of infections fell by roughly 30 percent to just under 90,000 for the week ending Dec. 25, down from some 127,000 in the prior corresponding period, government data show. The number of hospital admissions has also been significantly lower over the past 1½ weeks.
The country’s medical system has capacity to provide “routine health services,” authorities said in a statement Thursday, adding that the government would roll back certain pandemic control measures.
The relatively swift passage of the latest South African wave is likely to be keenly watched in many other countries struggling with their own surges in omicron-driven infections. But at least one prominent South African infectious-disease expert has cautioned against extrapolating from the country’s data, given South Africa’s relatively young population. The country is also in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere summer, a time of the year when respiratory illnesses are relatively uncommon.