Insight Bureau: South Africa’s Covid-19 cases have nearly quadrupled in the last four days, underscoring concerns around how contagious the new coronavirus Omicron variant might be as the country enters its fourth wave of the pandemic.

On Friday, South Africa reported on 16,055 new Covid-19 cases, up from 4,373 new cases on Tuesday. Friday’s numbers bring the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases past the 3 million mark since the start of the pandemic, according to data released by the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

On Thursday, the NICD also revealed that some of the new cases were people who had previously had Covid-19 and had been reinfected with the Omicron variant.

As the numbers for new cases continue to rise, the number of deaths seems more stable in comparison, with 25 new Covid-19 related deaths reported on Friday, the NICD said.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization also announced that they will deploy a surge team to the country’s Gauteng province — the current epicenter of the Omicron outbreak — to help with surveillance, sequencing, and contact tracing.

The WHO will also be providing technical assistance to boost the production and distribution of medical oxygen in Botswana, where Omicron has also been detected, Dr. Salam Gueye, WHO regional emergency director for Africa said.

List of Countries (31) where Omicron has been Detected So Far:

India, South Africa, Botswana, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Israel, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Australia, Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark, Austria, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Japan, France, Ghana, South Korea, Nigeria, Brazil, Norway, USA, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, UAE, Malayasia.