Prof Salim Abdool Karim Weekly COVID-19 UPDATES

29 December 2021

SARS-CoV-2 omicron trajectory

The latest data show a clear downward trend. I had anticipated that we would see a small second peak when KwaZulu-Natal peaked, but instead we just had a small hump/outcrop instead of a small second peak on the omicron mountain. The rate of decline is just slightly slower than the incline. We are now past the worst of the 4th wave. The cases are however still high, especially in the Western Cape but we can expect this downward trend to continue. As you may have heard, the USA reached a new record number of cases yesterday – over 270,000 cases/day. It seems that omicron is going to rapidly reach most corners of the globe and cause short-sharp-fast waves with high peaks! 

 

Salim S. Abdool Karim, FRS
Director: CAPRISA
CAPRISA Professor of Global Health: Columbia University
 

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