December 23, 2024 12:10 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Mohali building collapse: Death toll rises to 2, many feared trapped for 17 hours | 4-year-old killed after speeding car driven by a teen hits him in Mumbai | PM Modi attends opening ceremony of Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait | Jaipur gas tanker crash: Toll touches 14, 30 critical | Arrest warrant against former cricketer Robin Uthappa over 'PF fraud' | PM Modi emplanes for a visit to Kuwait | German Christmas market car attack leaves 2 dead, Saudi Arabian doctor arrested | India, France come together to build world's largest museum in Delhi's Raisina Hill | Canada, US presented no evidence of Indians' involvement in purported criminal acts: Centre informs Parliament amid 'serious allegations' | Delhi Police Crime Branch to investigate FIR against Rahul Gandhi over Parliament tussle
South Africa Omicron
Image: Unsplash

South Africa says Omicron peak may have peaked

| @indiablooms | Dec 31, 2021, at 09:12 pm

Johannesburg: South Africa has now lifted overnight curfews as officials gave hope that the COVID19 peak in the ongoing fourth wave may have passed.

A government statement said the Omicron variant, while highly transmissible, had seen lower hospitalisation rates than previous waves, reports BBC.

There had been a marginal increase in the number of deaths, it added.

Omicron was first detected in South Africa.

It has now spread across several nations.

The UN health agency chief expressed optimism during a press briefing on Wednesday that 2022 maybe the year the world ends the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus reminded that it was two years ago, as people gathered for New Year’s Eve celebrations, that a new global threat emerged.

Since then, 1.8 million deaths were recorded in 2020 and 3.5 million in 2021, but the actual number is much higher. There are also millions of people dealing with long-term consequences from the virus. 

Right now, Delta and Omicron are driving up cases to record numbers, leading to spikes in hospitalizations and deaths.

Tedros is “highly concerned” that the more transmissible Omicron, circulating at the same time as Delta, is leading to “a tsunami of cases.”

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.