Omicron spreading quicker than all other Covid-19 variants in South African ‘epicentre’
- South Africa says variant is showing ‘strongest acceleration in community transmission ever seen’ in the country as it spreads in Gauteng
- The Omicron mutation is moving so quickly it could account for more than half of Covid-19 cases in Europe in a few months, says health agency
The Omicron coronavirus variant is spreading faster in Gauteng, the epicentre of the latest outbreak in South Africa, than the Delta strain or any of the earlier mutations, an adviser to the provincial government said.
There is the “strongest acceleration in community transmission ever seen in South Africa”, and is “consistent with dominance of a variant that is more transmissible”, Bruce Mellado, the adviser, said in a presentation on Thursday.
South Africa announced the discovery of a new variant, later named Omicron, on November 25 as cases began to spike and the strain spread across the globe. National daily cases almost doubled on Wednesday, days after countries across the world halted flights to and from southern Africa.
Still, previous infections and the fact that about a quarter of South Africans are fully vaccinated may blunt its impact, Mellado said. He uses modelling to predict the trajectory of infections.
Government scientists and actuaries at private companies have estimated that between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of South Africans were infected in earlier waves of the virus.
“Omicron seems to be moving at a faster speed than Delta, but at the same time what seems to be happening is that our hospitalisation rate is somewhat more muted,” said Shabir Madhi, a vaccinologist at the University of the Witwatersrand.
“I’m optimistic that in this resurgence, while the total number of cases will probably be greater, hospitalisations and deaths will be lower.”