South African Cases Rise 255% In A Week But Omicron Symptoms ‘Appear Milder'

Coronavirus cases in South Africa have surged by 255% in the past seven days but there is mounting anecdotal evidence that infections with the Omicron variant are provoking milder symptoms than in previous waves.

- Peter Beaumont

According to a South African private healthcare provider, the recent rise in infections - which include the Omicron and Delta variants - has been accompanied by a much smaller increase in admissions to intensive care, echoing an earlier report from the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Yesterday, Marco Cavaleri, the head of biological threats to health and vaccines strategy at the European Medicines Agency, said the situation in Europe remained extremely worrying”, primarily due to the spread of the Delta variant, while preliminary data on Omicron suggested it may be more transmissible than Delta but cases appeared to be mostly mild.

However we need to gather more evidence to determine whether the spectrum of disease severity caused by Omicron is different to that of all the variants that have been circulating so far,” Cavaleri said. “Only time will tell.