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A woman receives a corona vaccination in the community of Orange Farm (archive image)
Photo: Jerome Delay / dpa
One month after the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was discovered, South Africa lifted the night curfew and other restrictions on public life.
"All indicators suggest that the country could have passed the peak of the fourth wave at the national level," said President Cyril Ramaphosa's office on Thursday in support of the reason.
The number of new infections in South Africa had fallen in the past few days by almost 30 percent compared to the previous week.
Hospital admissions for the virus have declined in eight of the country's nine provinces.
"The Omikron variant is highly transferable, but the number of hospital admissions was lower than in previous waves," said the President's Office.
"This means that the country has free capacity to accept patients, even for routine services."
The World Health Organization stated in its weekly status report on Wednesday that the risk from the Omikron variant was still very high.
According to previous observations, the variant spreads significantly faster than the delta variant did.
In the United States and Great Britain she is now the dominant mutant.
According to the WHO, the rapid growth rate is probably a combination of both the lower protection provided by the immune system and the increased transferability of the omicron variant.
hen / AFP / dpa