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Experts predicted that South Africa would experience a fourth wave around mid-December.

Well, here we go because the first ripples have begun and the detection of the new Omicron variant has done little to ease concerns.

Southern African countries were suddenly banned from travelling to many destinations around the world, and even though flights between South Africa and the UK are set to resume tomorrow the damage has been done.

Those flights are only for UK and Irish residents with a mandatory 10-day quarantine.

Having failed so miserably with his handling of the pandemic early on, Boris clearly wanted people to think he was being proactive.

Your man Zapiro’s latest cartoon for The Daily Maverick sums that up:

If the ‘Peppa Pig’ badge has you confused, see this speech from last week. What a total imbecile.

Alright, let’s see how much we know about this Omicron variant as things stand.

One of the first South African doctors to alert the authorities about patients with the Omicron variant, Dr Angelique Coetzee, spoke with The Telegraph:

…Coetzee said she was first alerted to the possibility of a new variant when patients in her busy private practice in the capital Pretoria started to come in earlier this month with Covid-19 symptoms that did not make immediate sense…

“Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before,” said Dr Coetzee, a GP for 33 years who chairs the South African Medical Association alongside running her practice.

When speaking to Reuters, she said she tested a patient at her practice on November 18 and noticed six others who came in with similar symptoms:

“We have seen a lot of Delta patients during the third wave. And this doesn’t fit in the clinical picture,” she said, adding she alerted NICD on the same day with the clinical results.

“Most of them are seeing very, very mild symptoms and none of them so far have admitted patients to surgeries. We have been able to treat these patients conservatively at home,” she said.

Her experience is not unique, with the doctor adding that she has “spoken to other colleagues of mine and they give the same picture”.

At present, most of the patients she has treated with the Omicron variant have been aged 40 or under.

Dr. Coetzee does worry about how the new variant could affect older people, especially those with co-morbidities such as diabetes or heart disease:

“What we have to worry about now is that when older, unvaccinated people are infected with the new variant, and if they are not vaccinated, we are going to see many people with a severe [form of the] disease,” she said.

During last night’s address, President Ramaphosa said that vaccine mandates are being considered.

Before we can plot a rational way forward, there is much we still need to understand.

CNBC reports:

Coetzee’s initial observations are only based on a very small number of cases and experts are worried about omicron’s large number of mutations. Preliminary evidence suggests the strain has an increased risk of reinfection, according to the WHO.

Early data suggests the variant is spreading in South Africa more rapidly than previous variants did and that the variant, known formally as B.1.1.529, could be starting to trigger a new wave of infections.

It could take a while to fully understand what specific symptoms, if any, are attributable to the new omicron variant on a wider scale.

Just because the Omicron variant symptoms appear to be mild at this point doesn’t mean we should drop our guards.

Much like last year, many festive season plans will have to be reworked and reconsidered at the last minute.

[sources:telegraph&dailymaverick&reuters&cnbc]