A Covid-19 patient being treated at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, 11 January 2020, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
As of Saturday, 4 December, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 3,020,569 with 16,366 new cases identified, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed.
This represents a 23.8% positivity rate.
Twenty-one more Covid-19 related deaths were reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 89,965.
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The total number of recoveries stood at 2,855,474 with a recovery rate of 94,5%.
19,715,126 tests in total have been conducted to date in both public and private sectors.
A further 110 hospital admissions were reported in the past 24 hours.
The total number of vaccines administered in the country so far stands at 26,324,383.
The majority of new Covid-19 cases are from Gauteng (71%), followed by Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, each province accounting for 6%.
Mpumalanga then comes after accounting for 5%, while Limpopo and North West each accounted for 4%.
Free State and Eastern Cape each accounted for 2% and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of Saturday’s cases.
Apart from cases in South Africa, Omicron has so far been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic, Italy, Britain, and Germany.
Health experts say additional data is needed to understand the full impact of the Omicron variant, such as the severity, transmissibility and immune escape.
Omicron was identified by South African scientists and researchers on 24 November, with the first known confirmed infection from a specimen collected on 9 November.
South Africa reported its first cases of the Omicron variant, which has a high number of mutations, to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 25 November.
Rio de Janeiro is scrapping its traditional New Year festivities as it tackles the new Omicron variant in Brazil, according to city authorities.
The decision raises concern for the annual carnival, which was cancelled last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic
The Moroccan government has decided to ban all cultural and artistic festivals and gatherings because of the spread of Omicron.
Belgian schools will require children aged six and above to wear masks because of “an autumn wave that has been much tougher than expected,” the government says.
Indoor venues such as cinemas will be limited to 200 people from Monday, with people required to be seated and wearing masks.
Chancellor Angela Merkel told Germans in her final video podcast to get jabbed: “I once again emphatically ask you to take this tricky virus seriously.”
Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen apologises after being filmed shopping without a mask, four days after her government reintroduced mandatory face coverings.
Additional reporting by AFP
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