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Coronavirus: South African scientists prepare for omicron-driven wave

JOHANNESBURG – As the world grapples with the emergence of a new, highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, scientists in South Africa – where omicrons were first identified – are scrambling to fight back. Its lightning spread across the country.

Over a two-week period, the omicron variant moved South Africa from a period of low transmission to a period of rapid growth of newly confirmed cases.

The country’s numbers are still relatively low, with 2,828 new confirmed cases recorded as of Friday, but the omicron’s rate of infecting young South Africans has prompted health experts to warning.

Rudo Mathivha, head of the intensive care unit at Soweto’s Baragwanath Hospital, said in an online press conference: “We are seeing a marked shift in the demographic profile of patients with the disease. COVID-19.

“Young people in their 20s to 30s, are suffering from moderate to severe illness, some of which require intensive care,” said Mathivha. “I worry that as the number grows, public health care facilities will become overwhelmed.”

She said urgent preparation is needed so that public hospitals can deal with a potentially large number of patients requiring intensive care.

“We knew we had a new variant,” says Mathivha. “The worst case scenario is that it hits us like a plain… we need to get the intensive care beds ready.”

Several university students in Pretoria looked like a cluster infection with hundreds of new cases and then thousands, first in the capital and then Johannesburg, nearby South Africa’s largest city.

In studying this increase, scientists identified a new variant that diagnostic tests have shown is likely to cause up to 90% of new cases, according to South African health officials. according to South African health officials.

Early studies show it has a reproduction rate of 2 – meaning that each person infected with it has the potential to spread it to two other people.

The new variant has a large number of mutations that appear to make it more transmissible and help it evade immune responses.

The World Health Organization reviewed the data on Friday and named the variant omicron, following the system that uses Greek letters, calling it a worryingly highly transmissible variant.

“It’s a big concern. We’re all extremely concerned about this virus,” Professor Willem Hanekom, director of the African Institute of Health Research, told The Associated Press.

“This variant is mainly found in Gauteng province, Johannesburg region of South Africa. But we have clues from diagnostic tests … that show that this variant is present throughout South Africa,” said Hanekom, co-author said president of the South African Association for the Study of COVID Variants.

“The scientific response from within South Africa is that we need to learn as much as possible,” he said. We know very little. “For example, we don’t know how virulent this virus is, which means how bad is this disease causing it?”

The key factor is vaccination. The new variants seem to spread most quickly among unvaccinated people. Currently, only about 40% of South African adults are vaccinated, and the number is much lower among those between the ages of 20 and 40.

South Africa has nearly 20 million doses of the vaccine – made by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson – but the number of people getting the vaccine is around 120,000 a day, far below the government’s target of 300,000 a day.

As scientists try to learn more about omicrons, South Africans can take steps to protect themselves against it, Hanekom said.

“This is a unique opportunity. There is still time for the unvaccinated to get vaccinated and that will provide some protection, we believe, against this infection, particularly is protective against severe infection, serious illness and death,” he says. “So I would urge people to get vaccinated if they can.”

Some ordinary South Africans have more mundane worries about the new variant.

“We’ve seen an increasing number of COVID-19 cases, so I was more worried about restrictions,” said Tebogo Letlapa, of Daveyton, east of Johannesburg. “I’m particularly worried about the closure of the liquor store because it’s almost festive season now.”

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AP journalist Mogomotsi Magome contributes from Johannesburg.

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