South Africa passes peak of Omicron wave without spike in hospitalisations

South Africa believes it has passed the peak of its fourth Covid wave and has revealed some interesting findings about Omicron.

South Africa believes it has passed the peak of its fourth Covid-19 wave, driven by the Omicron variant, without a spike in deaths or hospitalisations.

The country’s department of health reported a 29.7 per cent decrease in the number of new cases detected in the week ending December 25. It recorded 89,781 new cases, down from 127,753 the week before.

The government said while Omicron was highly transmissible there were lower rates of hospitalisation than in previous waves.

“This means that the country has a spare capacity for admission of patients even for routine health services. There is a marginal increase in the number of deaths in all the provinces,” a press release issued by Mondli Gungubele, a minister in the presidency, said.

Covid waves in South Africa. Deaths are represented by the solid line and cases by the dashed lined. Picture: Twitter / @fareedabdullah0

Fareed Abdullah of the South African Medical Research Council said the speed at which the fourth wave rose, peaked and then declined was “staggering”.

He said Covid hospitalisations at the peak of the Omicron wave were half of what they were with the Delta wave.

“Deaths in the Omicron wave were down by 80 per cent, ICU admissions fewer by 75 per cent and length of hospital stay was 50 per cent compared to outcomes and admissions in previous waves (combined),” Mr Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

South Africa has decided to remove its curfew rules based on the trajectory of the pandemic, vaccination levels and the available capacity within the health sector.

Businesses that have licences to sell alcohol after 11pm will be able to again.

Wearing masks in public places remains mandatory and not doing so is a criminal offence.

South Africa alerted the world to the new Omicron variant just over a month ago. The variant was first reported to the World Health Organisation by the country on November 24.