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South Africa’s health ministry said on Tuesday there was no need to impose new COVID-19 restrictions for home or arrival over a surge in infections in China and the detection of the first case of the Omicron subspecies.
South Africa’s Health Minister Joe Furla told reporters the new strain from China would not harm South Africans given the people’s strong immunity.
The minister further confirmed that South Africa has seen more Covid infections and deaths in recent weeks.
But the country will ramp up Covid testing and reinvigorate vaccination campaigns in light of rising global infections, he said at a media briefing.
South Africa, which detected its first case of Omicron in late 2021, has recorded more than 4 million coronavirus cases and more than 102,500 deaths. About 48% of the target population is vaccinated.
The grandson of the Omicron family, XBB.1.5, is the “most contagious variant ever detected,” the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week.
De Oliveira said the subvariant was detected on Friday in samples taken in late December in the southern African country, but has seen no “increase in cases, hospitalizations or deaths” at this stage. Hmm.
XBB.1.5 is present in about 30 countries and is becoming predominant in Europe and the US in particular. Its exact characteristics are still unknown. However, the initial data, according to WHO, indicate that a booster dose of the bivalent vaccine will produce neutralizing antibodies.
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