Despite what it says on the calendar, South Africans are not feeling the relief from the winter which they had desperately hoped for. Having endured the brunt of the pandemic’s first three waves on the continent— including the onset of the “South Africa'’ variant, then the “Delta” variant from India—the war-weary South Africans will soon be facing another surge in virus cases, according to a locally developed method of analysis of residential wastewater effluent, which has proven accurate in the past.
Furthermore, as reported in the Nov. 29 Washington Post, South African hospitals are experiencing a sudden surge in very young admissions. According to reports from urban Gauteng Province, “between Nov. 14 and 28, the age group with the highest total number of hospital admissions for COVID were those under the age of 2,” writes the Post. “During those two weeks 62 under-2-year-olds were admitted compared with 42 admissions for the ages 30 to 32,” a 50% increase. While further work remains to be done, early analysis points to the Omicron variant as the cause.
