South Africa reported nearly 20,000 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, a record since the Omicron variant was detected, and 36 new Covid-related deaths.
It was not immediately clear how many of the infections were caused by Omicron, given only a fraction of samples are sequenced, but experts believe it is driving South Africa's fourth wave of infections.
The statistics from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) brought the confirmed number of cases in the country to 3.071 million, with more than 90,000 Covid-linked deaths since the pandemic started.
Read more: Pakistan detects first 'suspected' case of Omicron variant in Karachi
Early evidence suggests Omicron is more transmissible than any previous variant, but that symptoms may be less severe, with lower levels of hospitalisation, especially in vaccinated patients….
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