South Africa prepares hospitals as COVID cases rise | Coronavirus pandemic News

President Cyril Ramaphosa says Omicron seems to be the main variant of COVID-19 in most of the country’s nine provinces.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said hospitals are preparing for more admissions as the country enters a fourth wave of COVID-19. Omicron coronavirus strain.

“As the country moves to the fourth round of COVID-19 infections, we are experiencing an infection rate that we have not seen since the beginning of the pandemic,” Ramaphosa said on Monday.

Omicron was detected in South Africa last month and raised global alarm amid fears of a new rise in infections.

There were more than 16,000 daily COVID-19 cases in South Africa last week on Friday, about 2,300 on Monday.

Ramaphosa said in a weekly bulletin that Omicron was dominating new cases in most of the country’s nine provinces and urged more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The President stressed that an increase in infections was expected.

“Disease patterns in our country have told us that we are likely to experience a fourth wave at this time and that it is almost inevitable that new variants of the virus will appear,” he said.

Entering the fourth wave, and as the country prepares for the festivities, the urgent priority is to include more people. Scientific evidence shows that vaccination is the most effective way to prevent the spread of new infections. https://t.co/xTifscW7es pic.twitter.com/fLxMmID1zI

– Cyril Ramaphosa ???????? (@CyrilRamaphosa) December 6, 2021

He also called on people to be vaccinated and said that the country has a sufficient supply of vaccines.

“Vaccination is essential for our economic recovery because as more people get vaccinated, more economic activity will open up,” he said.

To date, nearly 25 percent of the South African population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 4.7 percent have received a single shot, according to the Our Word in Data website.

The government will soon convene the National Coronavirus Governing Council to look into the state of the pandemic and decide whether further measures are needed to keep people safe, Ramaphosa said.

Scientists in South Africa and other countries are racing to determine if Omicron is more contagious, more serious, more resistant to disease, and more resistant to existing vaccines.

But some early anecdotal accounts by doctors and experts in South Africa have suggested that there are many infections caused by new variants. smooth.

“We are closely monitoring infection and hospitalization rates,” Ramaphosa said.