President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that the National Coronavirus Command Council would meet to deliberate on measures needed to tackle the new Covid-19 Omicron subvariant, XBB.1.5.
The highly transmissible Covid-19 subvariant was detected in the Western Cape last week and he revealed this in an interview with EWN.
Ramaphosa said although the subvariant, nicknamed “Kraken”, was highly transmissible, South Africans need not panic as he echoed the health department’s statement.
The newly re-elected African National Congress leader also said the health department and scientists would suggest preventative measures specific to the newly-detected variant.
“We are agile enough to want to have that meeting tomorrow, and thereafter there will be information that will be shared with the rest of the country,” he told EWN.
“We have learnt from the past pandemic that we have to have greater agility and ability to pre-empt what our reactions will be.”
At the same time, the national Department of Health (DOH) says it is in consultation with local scientists over the highly transmissible variant.
This comes after media reports over the weekend said the country had found its first case of the variant.
“[The department] has been alerted about this highly transmissible XBB.1.5 variant and is currently in discussions with the scientists to gather more information including its transmissibility and severity. Thus, an official communication will be made in due course,” said the department.
“In the meantime [the department] is appealing to everyone to vaccinate, get boosters, wear your masks, keep the distance, avoid overcrowded places and wash your hands.”
SA GovNews reports that as of last week Monday, some 38 261 917 vaccines had been administered in the country with more than 19 million people having been fully vaccinated.
The last update by the department in December indicated that the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases had crossed 4 million with over 3.9 million recoveries at a recovery rate of 97.2%.
“[The department] is closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in China and other parts of the world and will issue an alert if the country needs to take extra precautions. There is no need for panic. We urge people to vaccinate and get booster shots to enhance their immunity,” the department concluded.
