JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's fourth COVID-19 wave was anticipated and the emergence of the new Omicron variant was inevitable, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said, terming the surge in infections a matter of "great concern".
The president said the number of daily infections has increased five-fold in the past week, with nearly a quarter of all COVID-19 tests now returning positive.
Two weeks ago, only two per cent of tests were positive.
"While the surge in infections is of great concern, we should remember that we anticipated it. Disease modellers in our country have told us that we would likely experience a fourth wave around this time and that it was almost inevitable that new variants of the virus would emerge," Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter to the nation on Monday.
"As the country heads into a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, we are experiencing a rate of infections that we have not seen since the pandemic started. The Omicron variant that was brought to global attention by South African scientists nearly two weeks ago appears to be dominating new infections in most provinces," he said.
He said scientists in South Africa and around the world are still hard at work to answer critical questions about the new Omicron variant, such as its transmissibility, its progression, whether it causes more severe disease and how effective vaccines will be against it.
Ramaphosa urged the people to get vaccinated and take measures to ensure collective safety without waiting for stricter lockdown regulations.
"As we enter the fourth wave, and as the country gears up for the festive season, the urgent priority is for more people to get vaccinated. Scientific evidence shows that vaccination is the most effective means of preventing the spread of new infections, and that vaccines reduce severe illness, hospitalisation and death," he said.
"As every day passes, and as infections rise, the reasons to get vaccinated become more compelling and the need becomes ever more urgent. Vaccines are safe, and like all other routine vaccinations we received as children and against diseases like measles, they offer the most potent form of protection available," he said.
Ramaphosa said vaccination was also essential for the country's economic recovery, because as more people are vaccinated, more areas of economic activity would be opened up.
"We can do our work and socialise under less stringent restrictions, and our lives can return to some degree of normality. As individuals, we must carefully consider the implications of the risk to ourselves of being unvaccinated and the risk of spreading the infection to our children, parents, relatives, co-workers and those we do not even know," Ramaphosa said.
South Africa is currently at the lowest Level One of its five-level lockdown strategy, but speculation is rife that this may be upped this week as infections soar exponentially.
Ramaphosa confirmed that a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council will be convened "soon" to review the state of the pandemic.
"This will enable us to take whatever further measures are needed to keep people safe and healthy," he said.
Commiserating with people who have been left disappointed by the last-minute cancellation of major public events, Ramaphosa said evidence has shown that large public gatherings, especially those held indoors, carried the greatest risk of transmission.
"We should not wait for new regulations before we reduce the size of the gatherings, as research has shown this to be an effective means of reducing the spread of the virus," the president said.
Ramaphosa said hospitals have been preparing to admit more patients, even though the impact that the Omicron variant would have on this was not known yet.
"In the coming days and weeks, we will know more about the Omicron variant. At the same time, we are keeping a close eye on the rates of infection and hospitalisation," he said.
On Monday evening, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases reported that there were 86,728 active COVID-19 cases across South Africa.
Travel restrictions imposed on South Africa and other African nations for telling the world about the omicron variant are hypocritical, harsh and not supported by science, South Africa's president said Monday, recalling the phrase used by the UN chief, who called such measures "travel apartheid."
Speaking at the Dakar International Forum for Peace and Security, President Cypril Ramaphosa said the restrictions are punishing the very people and governments that helped inform the world of a new coronavirus variant.
"When South African scientists discovered omicron, they immediately took on the responsibility of informing the world, the entire world, that a new variant is coming through. And what is the result?" he asked, replying that is was punishment.
Ramaphosa said such countries have resorted not to science but their own self-interests.
"We say those bans must be removed with immediate effect," he declared.
Ramaphosa said the travel restrictions affect struggling economies in the region that rely on tourism.
The pandemic, access to vaccines and inequalities for the African continent were major points for the leader in addressing peace and security for the continent.
He spoke beside Senegalese President Macky Sall, Niger President Mohamed Bazoum and African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, among other world leaders, who addressed issues of insecurity, the pandemic and what is needed to move the continent forward.
"Beyond COVID-19, we are looking at how the continent of Africa can bolster its own health processes and systems so that we can withstand future pandemics," he said, adding that trade and investments between African countries must be deepened.
"The most critical aspect at this time, however, is the ongoing negotiation at the World Trade Organization for a temporary waiver of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights agreement for the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines," he said.
Ramaphosa said, with the WTO negotiations, "this is where we really see that the interests of the more developed economies, the rich countries, their refusal to accede to this proposal," adding that "they are only interested in advancing the interests of their citizens, not the citizens of the whole world."
South Africa and Senegal, which hosts the annual conference, are in line to begin producing COVID-19 vaccines next year.
"The task facing us as African nations is to drive the recovery, but the recovery that is sustainable, that is inclusive," he said Sall, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of international solidarity in this time of uncertainty.
"The emergence of a new variant in several countries is a reminder that we are all exposed and in a state that commits us to be resilient, determined and combative as necessary in the face of the harmful effects of a double health and economic crisis," he said, noting that Africa is also "particularly vulnerable to climate change, the intensification of terrorist attacks and the resurgence of coups d'état.
The emergency is here.
Sall said no individual government or nation or continent can ensure collective security, only international solidarity.
"Environmental and health sectors, organized crime, piracy, cybercrime, migration, and all other cross-border challenges, no country will be able to face solely," Sall said.
"This means that peace and security in Africa are an integral part of peace and security in the world."
Meanwhile, a Nigerian official on Monday criticized a travel ban imposed on the West African nation by the British government amid fears about the new omicron coronavirus variant as "punitive, indefensible and discriminatory."
UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Saturday added Nigeria to the UK's travel "red list," which means that arrivals from there will be banned except for UK and Irish residents.
He said there was a "significant number" of omicron cases linked to travel with Nigeria, with 27 cases recorded in England.
But Nigerian authorities say they have not reported any new omicron cases in the country since announcing on Dec.1 that they had detected three cases in travelers who arrived from South Africa.
The British travel ban is "not driven by science" and is "unjust, unfair, punitive, indefensible and discriminatory," Nigeria's Information Minister Lai Mohammed told reporters.
"Instead of these reflex responses that are driven by fear, rather than science. Why can't the world take a serious look at the issue of access to vaccines, and ensure that it is based on the principles grounded in the right of every human to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, political belief, economic or any other social condition?" Mohammed said.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is not considering imposing travel bans from any country now, Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire told The Associated Press.
Instead, it is focusing on ramping up surveillance and testing as it aims to "balance saving lives and saving livelihoods."
Only about 3.78 million of Nigeria's 206 million people have been fully vaccinated so far.
But Enahire said the situation in the country is under control, adding that the government is able to access 100 million doses.
Last week, Nigeria also approved boosters for the fully vaccinated.
New confirmed cases have remained low since the first cases of the new variant were detected, averaging 80 daily.
Ehanire called a travel ban "an extreme step" that Nigerian authorities are not going to take now "because we know that the virus somehow gets around and we do all we can to make sure that we reduce the rate at which carriers enter our country.
Nigeria requires inbound travelers to take a COVID-19 PCR test within 48 hours of their departure, take another test on the second day after arrival and self-isolate for seven days, after which a third test is done if not fully vaccinated.
A mass vaccination program in Nigeria is gradually gathering momentum as the nation aims to fully vaccinate 55 million people in the next two months.
The health minister said Nigeria also is seeking to produce COVID-19 vaccines locally funded by a combination of government money and investors.
"We are ready, we are willing and we also know that Nigeria generally will consider the needs of the whole of West Africa when you are making an investment like this," he said.