South African authorities reported on Wednesday that the number of new COVID-19 cases in South Africa has almost doubled in one day, indicating a sharp increase in the number of countries where scientists detected omicron variants last week.

South African scientists detect new virus variants during peak period

Official statistics show that the number of new confirmed cases on Wednesday increased from 4,373 a day ago to 8,561.

Scientists in South Africa said that after the discovery of a new variant of omicron, they are preparing for the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases.

Dr. Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, a regional virologist at the World Health Organization, told The The World Associated Press. “We may see a significant increase in the number of confirmed cases in South Africa.”

South Africa experienced a period of low transmission in early November, with an average of about 200 new cases per day for 7 days, but in mid-November, new cases began to increase rapidly. The new cases reported on Wednesday represent a positive rate of 16.5% of tested cases, up from 1% in early November.

Driven by the delta variants in June and July, the previous surge in South Africa brought daily new cases to a peak of more than 20,000. South Africa has a population of 60 million and has recorded more than 2.9 million COVID-19 cases, including nearly 90,000 deaths.

Experts say that it is too early to determine that the omicron variant is the cause of the increase in cases, but it is very likely. Standard PCR tests can show that positive cases are caused by omicron, but only complete gene sequencing can confirm.

Gumede-Moeletsi said laboratories in South Africa and Botswana are urgently performing genome sequencing to study omicron cases to determine whether it is significantly more infectious, whether it will cause more severe COVID-19 cases, or whether it evades vaccination. protection of.

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“The data we currently have is still very limited. So researchers are busy studying many other characteristics of this virus, of which transmission is one of them. Severity is another characteristic,” she said, adding that researchers still need Find out whether current vaccines are still effective against it.

The number of people hospitalized in South Africa due to COVID-19 is on the rise, but it is not rising at an alarming rate of new cases.

The South African National Institute of Infectious Diseases announced on Wednesday that omicron variants have been detected in five of the nine provinces in South Africa, accounting for 74% of the viral genome sequenced in November.

According to data released by the institute, the first detection of the variant in South Africa may have been in Gauteng on November 8. It said that until the end of October, delta variants accounted for most of the country’s genomes sequenced, but in November, omicron variants surpassed it.