Pretoria - The South African Medical Association (Sama) has appealed to South African communities to avoid panicking over the reported spike in Covid-19 cases in the People’s Republic of China.
Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, the chairperson of Sama, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, spoke about the latest transmissible Omicron variant.
“We are aware, as the South African Medical Association, that there is the variant that is very transmissible, more transmissible than what we have seen in the past, but it is not a cause for concern. We just have to be cautious,” said Mzukwa.
“As far as we know, the scientists are working on it, to understand how it behaves and further developments.”
Mzukwa appealed to South African communities to get vaccination and the booster shots.
Last week, globally acclaimed bioinformatics scientist Prof Tulio de Oliveira, based at the University of KwaZulu Natal, said at this stage, South Africans should just wait and see how the situation unfolds in China.
“Basically, South Africans should just wait and see here. We do not see a big reason for concern about the cases in China. The reasons for that is based on two main reasons – the first one is that the variant circulating in China is still Omicron, and it is a sub-lineage of Omicron similar to the one that caused the wave of infections around May/June in South Africa. It was a very small wave of infections with very low mortality in South Africa,” said De Oliveira.
“The second reason is that South Africa has a very high population immunity, either from vaccination, from previous infection or from hybrid immunity, so at the moment, we are in a good situation in South Africa.
Over the weekend, the Department of Health appealed to everyone to vaccinate and get boosters as it is in discussions with scientists to gather more information on the highly transmissible XBB.1.5 Covid-19 variant.
The variant, which is nicknamed “kraken” by scientists, is spreading quickly in the United States. The Department of Health released a statement on its social media platforms on Saturday.
Earlier this month, the Department of Health stated that it was closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation in China and other parts of the world and would issue an alert if the country needed to take extra precautions.
The department stated that there was no need for the public to panic. It urged people to vaccinate and get booster shots to enhance their immunity against variants and sub-variants of the pandemic.
In a social media post, the department said: “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.”
IOL