Cases appear to have peaked in the South African province where the Omicron variant was first discovered thetimes.co.uk/article/south-…
After extremely rapid early growth, Gauteng province, which includes the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, recorded 9,250 new cases yesterday, down from a high of over 11,000 earlier in the week 
“This one is keeping us guessing, we are really apprehensive,” said Dr Nicholas Crisp, acting director-general in South Africa’s health department, who said he was cautiously hopeful
“It looks as if the numbers are down again today so it looks like Gauteng have been consistently down for a couple of days now,” he said
Crisp added: “When it took off like a rocket we thought it would be the same thing on the way down and it is . . . It is interesting how it’s behaving, nothing like what we have seen before”
Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases physician, said that although it was early days, it also appeared that the cases were not translating into deaths in the same way
“It is too soon to say that the variant virus is intrinsically causing less severe disease, but it’s clear that overall, at the population level, we are seeing less severe disease,” he said
Some South African doctors have suggested that the virus itself may have mutated to cause less severe disease
Tom Moultrie, professor of demography at the University of Cape Town, said that the apparent turn in case numbers was “the most positive news in weeks”
Read more: thetimes.co.uk/article/south-…
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