Covid-19 cases in South Africa have quadrupled since Tuesday

Can omicron infect those who already had covid-19?

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(CNN) -

Covid-19 cases in South Africa have nearly quadrupled in the past four days, highlighting concerns about how contagious the new variant of the omicron coronavirus could be as the country enters its fourth wave of the pandemic. .

On Friday, South Africa reported 16,055 new cases of Covid-19, up from 4,373 new cases on Tuesday.

• They find evidence that people are more easily reinfected with the omicron variant than with other variants, say South African researchers

Friday's figures lift the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases past the 3 million mark since the start of the pandemic, according to data released by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD). country.

"Today, the institute reports 16,055 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,004,203. This increase represents a positivity rate of 24.3%," said Friday's statement.

On Thursday, the NICD also revealed that some of the new cases were people who had previously had COVID-19 and had been reinfected with the omicron variant.

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"The previous infection used to protect against delta, but now with omicron that doesn't seem to be the case," Professor Anne von Gottberg, a microbiologist at the country's National Institute of Communicable Diseases, said during a news conference Thursday.

"We monitored ... the reinfections of the beta and delta waves, and we did not see an increase in reinfections above what we expected when the strength of the infection changes, when the wave stops. However, we are seeing an increase for omicron, "he said.

On the other hand, data from South Africa show that reinfections may be less severe, Professor Gottberg said.

"We think the disease will be less severe," Gottberg said.

"And that is what we are trying to test and monitor very carefully in South Africa. And the same would apply to those who are vaccinated," he added, emphasizing that vaccines will continue to help prevent serious diseases and that hospital admissions cases they continue to increase at a "rapid" rate.

As the numbers of new cases continue to rise, the number of deaths appears more stable in comparison, with 25 new COVID-19-related deaths reported on Friday, the NICD said.

• Questions from the audience about the coronavirus: In what type of people can covid-19 mutate?

While only a limited number of confirmed coronavirus cases are being sequenced in the country, Gottberg said, of the 249 cases sequenced in November, 183 were confirmed to be the omicron variant, equivalent to 70-75% of cases.

A total of 65,990 tests were performed in the last 24 hours, according to the NICD.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization also announced that they will deploy a team to the country's Gauteng province, the current epicenter of the omicron outbreak, to help with surveillance, sequencing and contact tracing.

WHO will also provide technical assistance to boost the production and distribution of medical oxygen in Botswana, where omicron has also been detected, said Dr Salam Gueye, WHO's regional emergency director for Africa.

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