South Africa is 'over the curve,' doctor who detected first Omicron case says
COVID-19 case numbers in South Africa have started to decline, the doctor who detected the world's first Omicron case says.
Just 8515 South Africans tested positive to COVID-19 in the past 23 hours, down from 13,992 last Monday, according to Data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).
The 40 per cent drop is the biggest since the Omicron outbreak hit the country.
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Case numbers are starting to decline in the South African epicentre of the Omicron outbreak. Getty
"What we currently see is our cases, sort of, we're over the curve – it's sort of coming down. You know, in Gauteng, which was the epicentre, the numbers are much lower," Dr Angelique Coetzee, national chair of the South African Medical Association, told CNN on Monday.
Dr Coetzee said COVID-19 was still spreading in other areas of the country because of the holidays, but "in total, if you look at our numbers, it's going down".
The positivity rate is still high at around 30 per cent, she added.
"The reason is that people go and test. There's a lot of testing done. Incidentally, since the 9th of December, it seems there are more people going for tests than going to get their vaccines. It's very interesting to look at the behaviour of people," she told CNN.
The Omicron variant has not caused the death rate to spike and the cases are "much, much" less severe than Delta cases, Dr Coetzee said.
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A traveller receives a COVID-19 test at a testing clinic at Sydney Airport. Bloomberg
During the peak of the Delta wave of cases in South Africa, about 400 to 500 people were being admitted to the nation's hospitals per day.
However, the number of daily hospitals admissions during the Omicron surge were less than 100, Dr Coetzee said.
There appeared to be a much lower death rate associated with the Omicron variant, and the vast majority of people in ICUs were unvaccinated, she added.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pushed back against the narrative that Omicron produces milder symptoms.
Speaking to reporters last week he said: "Sadly, yes Omicron is producing hospitalisations and sadly at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with Omicron.
"I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that's something we need to set on one side and just recognise the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population. So the best thing we can do is all get our boosters."
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