Covid-19 update: Europe could be headed for pandemic ‘endgame’

South Africa has 75, 626 active cases of Covid-19, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

The country has reported 1,931 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 581 359.

The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased once again today.

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 8.6%, which is lower than yesterday (9.2%). The 7-day average is 9.6% today, which is lower than it was yesterday (9.9%).

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (26%), followed by Western Cape (20%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 19%; Mpumalanga accounted for 9%; Limpopo accounted for 8%; North West accounted for 7%; Eastern Cape accounted for 5%; Northern Cape accounted for 4%; and Free State accounted for 3% of today’s new cases.

#COVID19 UPDATE: 22,567 tests were conducted in the last 24hrs, with 1,931 new cases, representing an 8.6% positivity rate. 17 #COVID19 related deaths have been reported in the last 24-48hrs, total fatalities amount to 94,177 to date. See more here: https://t.co/lXn8cNWn0o pic.twitter.com/hfROwGlU8L

— NICD (@nicd_sa) January 23, 2022

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International Covid-19 updates

Europe

The Omicron variant has moved the Covid-19 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the WHO Europe director said Sunday.

“It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview, adding that Omicron could infect 60 percent of Europeans by March.

Once the current surge of Omicron currently sweeping across Europe subsides, “there will be for quite some weeks and months a global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity due to the infection, and also lowering seasonality.”

“So we anticipate that there will be a period of quiet before Covid-19 may come back towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the pandemic coming back,” Kluge said.

The Omicron variant, which studies have shown generally leads to less severe infection among vaccinated people than Delta, has raised long-awaited hopes that Covid-19 is starting to shift from a pandemic to a more manageable endemic illness like seasonal flu. 

“There is a lot of talk about endemic but endemic means … that it is possible to predict what’s going to happen. This virus has surprised (us) more than once so we have to be very careful”, Kluge said.

In the WHO Europe region, which comprises 53 countries including several in Central Asia, Omicron represented 15 percent of new cases as of January 18, compared to 6.3 percent a week earlier, the health body said.

Russia

Russia reported a new daily high of Covid-19 cases on Sunday, breaking its national record for the third day running as the highly contagious Omicron variants spurs surging infections.

The European country worst hit by the pandemic registered 63,205 cases over 24 hours, beating previous records of 57,212 on Saturday and 49,513 on Friday, government figures showed.

Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, posted a new record for the fourth day in a row with 17,528 infections.

President Vladimir Putin warned earlier in the month that Russia had two weeks to prepare for a surge in Omicron cases, calling for more testing and vaccinations.

Despite four vaccines being widely available for months including the domestically produced Sputnik V, Russians remain reluctant to get jabbed with just under half of the population fully vaccinated. 

Sputnik V’s makers on Thursday claimed their vaccine gave strong protection against Omicron, while Putin has previously claimed it is “more effective” than Western-developed jabs.

Russian government figures show 326,112 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

But those figures are contradicted by state statistics agency Rosstat, which counts Covid deaths under a broader definition and says fatalities are around double the official figure.

Globally, Russia has the fourth-highest number of virus-related fatalities, according to an AFP tally.

Additional reporting by AFP