South Africa has begun preparations for more admissions, as the Omicron coronavirus variant pushes the country into a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a weekly newsletter, on Monday, December 6, 2021, said the Omicron variant appeared to be dominating new cases in most of the country’s nine provinces and urged more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Disease modellers in our country have told us that we would likely experience a fourth wave around this time and that it was almost inevitable that new variants of the virus would emerge,” Ramaphosa expressed.
“South Africa now has sufficient supplies of vaccines … vaccination is essential for our economic recovery because as more people are vaccinated more areas of economic activity will be opened up,” he said.
Ramaphosa noted that the government would soon convene the National Coronavirus Command Council to review the state of the pandemic and decide whether further measures are needed to keep people safe.
‘’Scientists in our country and around the world are still hard at work to answer critical questions about the new Omicron variant, such as its transmissibility, its progression, whether it causes more severe disease, and how effective vaccines will be against it,” Ramaphosa reiterated.
Omicron was first detected in southern Africa last month and has triggered global alarm as governments fear another surge in infections.
-REUTERS-
