Ramaphosa: ‘We shouldn’t panic over the Omicron variant’

President Cyril Ramaphosa is calling for calm amongst South Africans, particularly those who are concerned about the emergence of the Omicron variant. It’s been well over a week since it was labelled a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and since then, it has been identified in dozens of countries, many whom imposed a series of travel bans on Southern Africa – despite recording astronomically higher COVID-19 cases than the region.

RAMAPHOSA ALLAYS FEARS OVER OMICRON VARIANT

After engaging Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, President Cyril Ramaphosa reckons people should be more at ease, due to what they know about the Omicron variant and possible hospital admissions this festive season.

“I have been in touch with the minister of health about the virus and he said yes, it [the Omicron variant] is more transmissible, it seems, than others. However, he says our hospital admissions are not increasing at an alarming rate, meaning that whilst people may be testing positive, they are not in large numbers being admitted into hospitals. It is for that reason that I did say that we should not panic because it is possible, and tests and research still needs to be done and although Omicron spreads, it does not seem to be resulting in greater number of admissions in hospitals and we should take heart in that,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa was speaking to media after meeting his counterpart in Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at Jubilee House in Accra. Various matters were on the agenda, including strengthening bilateral ties as well as the international community’s unsavoury response to the discovery of the Omicron variant in Southern Africa.

Ramaphosa says he agrees with Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who said vaccinations in the continent needed to be ramped up. He also reiterated that developed nations have become greedy and are hoarding vaccines.

“We have had to scout around to find vaccines all over and therefore we say vaccination is the biggest defence we have got,” he said.