The World Health
Organization (WHO) has deployed ‘surge teams’ in South Africa’s Gauteng
province, the place where the omicron coronavirus variant was first detected
and the eventual epicenter of its spread. The health agency is lending support
to South Africa at a time when the country is seeing a rapid rise in
hospitalisations and caseload and burgeoning pressure on its health
infrastructure. The WHO is helping South Africa with surveillance and contact
tracing.

Salam Gueye, WHO’s
regional emergency director for Africa, said that the UN-backed body is also
providing technical assistance to the South Africans in order to boost the
production of medical oxygen as well as its distribution in both South Africa
and Botswana, both places where the omicron variant has been detected.

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South Africa
reported 11,500 fresh COVID-19 cases in its last daily record, marking a sharp
rise from the nearly 8,500 cases reported the previous day. This, again, is an
extremely sharp rise from the 200 to 300 cases it was recording only in
mid-November before the omicron variant surfaced.

Omicron, a
highly-mutative variant of the coronavirus, was detected in South Africa last
week and has subsequently approached becoming the dominant strain in the
country. The strain was first detected in the Gauteng province, one of the most
populous provinces in South Africa, and the country’s financial hub.

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The South African
National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has said that nearly 75% of
COVID-19 samples are testing positive for the omicron variant. “For the month
of November, we had 249 sequences and of those, 183 have been considered to be
omicron,” said NICD clinical microbiologist professor Anne von Gottberg.

Also Read | South Africa boosts vaccination drive as Omicron scare increases

With regard to other
nations responding to the new variant, WHO’s Africa director Dr. Matshidiso
Moeti said that countries “must adjust their COVID-19 response and stop a surge
in cases from sweeping across Africa and possibly overwhelming
already-stretched health facilities.”