Has the peak been exceeded ?: The Omigron focal point suggests a slight relaxation

Friday, December 17, 2021

Beyond the climax?
The Omigron focal point indicates a slight relaxation

The earliest center of the Omigron variant is in South Africa. Summer vacations there begin with caution and positive news: apparently Gauteng province has crossed the peak of the current wave. However, scientific conclusions about the severity of the disease are still very early.

With the onset of summer vacation in South Africa, the new corona virus variant Omikron is now spreading rapidly across the country – but losing momentum at the previous center. “There are early signs that we have reached a peak in Gauteng province,” said Health Secretary Joe Pahla.

The area around the metropolitan area of ​​Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria accounted for 25 percent of daily new epidemics nationwide until Thursday. “For comparison: ten days ago Gauteng still represented 70 to 80 percent of new infections,” Phahla explained.

However, the fourth wave of infections driven by Omigran has clearly surpassed the maximum values ​​of previous waves across the country in terms of the number of new infections. However, the number of hospital admissions is much lower than the previous wave of infections.

However, experts such as virologist Sandra Siechek warn against making premature decisions for Germany from South African figures. “You can not say anything definite about the severity of your illness, and you can not compare us with one another in South Africa,” Zizek said Wednesday. The population there is considerably smaller on average and the previous infection rate is much higher.

In South Africa, the Omigron variant dominates the infectious process, according to Michelle Groom of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). It is noteworthy that the elderly are more prone to infections. Hospital admission has increased in percentage terms, but comes from a relatively low base. According to her colleague Waasila Jassat, the length of stay of covit patients in the hospital has also been significantly reduced compared to previous infections – less than half to ten days in the third wave. But it is still too late to draw scientifically correct conclusions from this.