Fellow South Africans,
Earlier this week, our scientists identified a new variant of the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
The World Health Organization has named it Omicron and has declared it a ‘variant of concern’.
The Omicron variant was first described in Botswana and subsequently in South Africa, and scientists have also identified cases in countries such as Hong Kong, Australia, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Israel.
The early identification of this variant is a result of the excellent work done by our scientists in South Africa and is a direct result of the investment that our Science and Innovation and Health Departments have made in our genomic surveillance capabilities.
We are one of the countries in the world that set up a surveillance network throughout the country to help us monitor the behaviour of COVID-19.
The early detection of this variant and the work that has already gone in to understanding its properties and possible effects means that we are better equipped to respond to the variant.
We pay tribute to all our scientists who are world-renowned and widely respected and have demonstrated that they have a deep knowledge of epidemiology.
There are a number of things that we already know about the variant as a result of the work our scientists have been doing on genome surveillance.
Firstly, we now know that Omicron has far more mutations than any previous variant. Secondly, we know that Omicron is readily detected by the current COVID-19 tests.
This means that people who are showing COVID-19 symptoms or have been in contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive, should still get tested.
Thirdly, we know that this variant is different from other circulating variants and that it is not directly related to the Delta or Beta variants.
Fourthly, we know that the variant is responsible for most of the infections found in Gauteng over the last two weeks and is now showing up in all other provinces.
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