Omicron potentially more transmissible, warns top SA scientist

Healthcare workers test people for Covid-19 in Alexandra. Picture: THULANI MBELE

Omicron was detected in Botswana and SA last week and has since been identified in at least 10 other countries. It has dozens of mutations, many of which are present in other variants of concern and are associated with increased transmissibility, said University of KwaZulu-Natal epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim, who previously co-chaired the health minister’s advisory committee on Covid-19.

“Admissions always lag a week or two , but we can already see a very sharp rise in both the public and private sector,” said NICD scientist Waasila Jassat. All five districts in Gauteng are showing increased hospital admissions, with the biggest jump in Tshwane, she said. A little over a third of SA’s adults are fully vaccinated, with either two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson jab.

Also potentially less transmissable or also potentially the same as Delta. Man the level of journalism here is bad

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