Per Editor: Peng Shuiping
According to CCTV news, on the evening of the 12th local time, the website of the South African Presidential Office released a message that earlier on the 12th, President Cyril Ramaphosa began to feel unwell after leaving the National Memorial of former South African President De Klerk, and then his new coronavirus test result was positive.
Image source: Photo.com -400288537
According to the source, Ramaphosa is currently in good spirits, is being monitored by the South African Military Health Service under the South African Defence Force, is now self-isolating in Cape Town, and entrusts all affairs to Vice President Mabuza.
Ramaphosa and the delegation returned to South Africa from Senegal on 8 December 2021 after concluding their visit to four West African countries, when he tested negative for COVID-19.
Ramaphosa said his infection was a reminder that everyone in South Africa needs to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible and be vigilant and avoid contact. Vaccination remains the best protection against serious illness and reducing hospitalizations.
Recently, the epidemic situation in South Africa has once again been grim. On the 12th, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases of South Africa announced that the number of new confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in South Africa in a single day was 37,875, setting a record for the highest single-day new case since the outbreak of the epidemic.
In addition, since its discovery in early November, the new coronavirus Olmi kerong mutant strain has spread rapidly in South Africa, becoming the dominant strain of the new coronavirus in the country in less than two weeks. According to the Statistics of the World Health Organization, the Olmikeron strain has appeared on every continent except Antarctica, and nearly 60 countries and regions have found this mutated strain so far.
According to Red Star News quoted by foreign media on December 11, in Gauteng Province, the "epicenter" of the epidemic in South Africa, the new infection cases in the first week of December surged by 400%, of which more than 90% of the infections were caused by the Omiljung strain. On Thursday, there were 22,400 new confirmed cases of infection across South Africa and 19,000 new cases on Friday, compared with about 200 new cases per day a few weeks ago. South African Health Minister Fahra said on December 10 that in the past month, the number of new infections in South Africa has reached 90,000.
However, according to the latest data released by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in South Africa, the severe disease rate of patients hospitalized for the Aomi Kerong infection in recent weeks is about 30%, which is half the number of previous local outbreaks.
Local doctors also said that according to observations so far, Omilon is more contagious, but the patient's symptoms are more mild.
In addition, data released by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in South Africa shows that the average length of hospital stay for people infected with the Aumicoron strain has so far been reduced to 2.8 days compared with the average of 8 days in previous waves of outbreaks. At the same time, the mortality rate of hospitalized patients is only 3%, which is also a sharp drop from 20% of the previous outbreak.
However, this is only the conclusion of preliminary observations, and the course of the new crown pneumonia may evolve over several weeks. William Hanecombe, director of the African Institute of Health Research in South Africa, said that "almost all the evidence at this stage points to mild symptoms of Theomilon infection", although it is only two weeks since the outbreak broke out, and more data is needed to grasp the true situation of the Omiljun strain.
At the same time, scientists from all over the world are paying close attention to their own Omilon strains, and the situation in some countries does not seem to be as "optimistic" as in South Africa.
According to Red Star News, according to foreign media reported on December 11, a team of experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine warned that in the absence of further restrictions, the UK will usher in a new round of epidemic peaks in January next year. In the most pessimistic scenario, infection with the Omiljun strain could lead to between 25,000 and 75,000 deaths in the country by the end of April.
Not only that, but two British infectious disease experts have also warned in recent days that the spread of the new coronavirus Amickon variant in the UK seems to have exceeded that of South Africa. Professor John Edmonds of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said at a seminar of the Royal Society of Medicine that the speed at which Omilon spread in the UK was "quite amazing" and "probably even faster than in South Africa".
Image source: CCTV News
According to the latest news of CCTV News, the latest data released by the British Health Security Agency on the 12th local time shows that in the past 24 hours, there were 1239 new cases of infection with the Omikerong mutant strain in the United Kingdom, and the cumulative number of infection cases rose to 3137. Of these, 2953 were in England, 159 in Scotland, 15 in Wales and 10 in Northern Ireland.
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser to the UK Health Security Agency, said a number of reports of hospitalisations had been received in the past few days of infection with the Omiljun strain and that the circumstances of the cases were currently being investigated.
In addition, the British media reported on the 12th local time that due to the rapid increase in the number of infection cases of the new coronavirus Omilton strain, the United Kingdom has raised the alert level of the new crown pneumonia epidemic to level four, second only to the highest level five.
Source: Daily Economic News Comprehensive CCTV News, Red Star News
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