After six straight weeks of high new cases of Covid-19 in Africa, the fourth wave of the pandemic on the continent, driven by the Omicron variant, is stable. The confirmation was made on Thursday by the World Health Organization, WHO.

Southern Africa, where there has been a large increase in new infections, has already seen a decline of 14% in the last week. South Africa, where Omicron was first reported, saw a 9% decline in new cases.

However, the WHO explains that in the north and west of the continent, there continues to be an increase in coronavirus infections. In North Africa, the increase was 121% compared to the previous week.

Across the continent, total deaths rose 64% between January 3 and January 9, due to infections in high-risk patients. Still, the WHO points out that the death toll in the fourth wave of the pandemic is still lower than previous waves.

Hospitalizations continue to be down. In South Africa, for example, 9% of the 5,600 beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients. The Omicron variant became dominant just two weeks after it was discovered, while Delta took four weeks to overtake Beta in Africa.

Omicron is already dominant in Cape Verde and Nigeria and with regard to vaccination, only 10% of the African population has received full doses. Since the start of the pandemic, 10.2 million people have had confirmed cases of Covid-19 on the African continent.

The WHO Director for Africa stated that crucial measures to combat the pandemic remain very much needed on the continent. Matshidiso Moeti noted that access to vaccines on the continent needs to be rapidly expanded amid fears that the "next wave will not be so forgiving.

Source ONUNews