Omicron Update: Good news Dec 31
Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 10:10 am
The Wall Street Journal online this morning:
The South African government said a wave of Covid-19 caused by the Omicron variant is in retreat, a promising sign for other countries facing their own bursts of infections caused by the highly transmissible strain.
South Africa Says Its Omicron Wave Is in Retreat
“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele said Thursday, citing declining Covid-19 cases and hospital admissions. The government lifted a curfew and restrictions on alcohol sales ahead of New Year’s Eve, though mask-wearing orders and limits on gatherings remain in place.
Omicron’s rapid decline in South Africa offers hope to other countries that they, too, can weather surges in cases. The variant, first detected by South African scientists in November, has driven recorded infections to new highs in countries including the U.K. and France and prompted many governments to tighten public-health measures to limit hospitalizations.
Though the South African data is encouraging, scientists caution that the country’s experience might not be repeated in Europe, the U.S. and other countries grappling with Omicron. South Africa’s population is young and likely has some degree of immunity to severe disease with the variant because of high levels of prior infection. It is also summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and the virus tends to spread more easily in winter, when people are huddled indoors.
You should all Google: "Omicron Variant Deaths"
Read: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/29/omicron ... ntist.html
The South African government said a wave of Covid-19 caused by the Omicron variant is in retreat, a promising sign for other countries facing their own bursts of infections caused by the highly transmissible strain.
South Africa Says Its Omicron Wave Is in Retreat
“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele said Thursday, citing declining Covid-19 cases and hospital admissions. The government lifted a curfew and restrictions on alcohol sales ahead of New Year’s Eve, though mask-wearing orders and limits on gatherings remain in place.
Omicron’s rapid decline in South Africa offers hope to other countries that they, too, can weather surges in cases. The variant, first detected by South African scientists in November, has driven recorded infections to new highs in countries including the U.K. and France and prompted many governments to tighten public-health measures to limit hospitalizations.
Though the South African data is encouraging, scientists caution that the country’s experience might not be repeated in Europe, the U.S. and other countries grappling with Omicron. South Africa’s population is young and likely has some degree of immunity to severe disease with the variant because of high levels of prior infection. It is also summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and the virus tends to spread more easily in winter, when people are huddled indoors.
You should all Google: "Omicron Variant Deaths"
Read: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/29/omicron ... ntist.html