{"id":21671,"date":"2021-12-06T10:46:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T10:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=21671"},"modified":"2021-12-06T10:46:53","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T10:46:53","slug":"omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections","title":{"rendered":"Omicron variant fuels spike in South Africa COVID infections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\">Africa-Press-South-Africa<\/a> The pandemic has taken a dramatic turn in South Africa barely a week after the country&#8217;s scientists flagged the discovery of a new COVID variant, Omicron. The country is now seeing a sharp increase in infections due to the newly discovered variant. Scientists say symptoms appear to be mild but Omicron is fast overtaking Delta to become the dominant strain in the country.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Omicron variant fuels spike in South Africa COVID infections | DW News\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N9iKM417OPI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press-South-Africa The pandemic has taken a dramatic turn in South Africa barely a week after the country&#8217;s scientists flagged the discovery of a new COVID variant, Omicron. The country is now seeing a sharp increase in infections due to the newly discovered variant. Scientists say symptoms appear to be mild but Omicron is fast overtaking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18],"tags":[315,450,447],"class_list":["post-21671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-video","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-covid-variant","tag-omicron","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Omicron variant fuels spike in South Africa COVID infections - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Africa-Press-South-Africa The pandemic has taken a dramatic turn in South Africa barely a week after the scientists found a new variant\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Omicron variant fuels spike in South Africa COVID infections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press-South-Africa The pandemic has taken a dramatic turn in South Africa barely a week after the scientists found a new variant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-06T10:46:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/12\/img-61a9ff39cc2d2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Omicron variant fuels spike in South Africa COVID infections\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-06T10:46:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections\"},\"wordCount\":83,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/12\/img-61a9ff39cc2d2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"COVID variant\",\"Omicron\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"video\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/omicron-variant-fuels-spike-in-south-africa-covid-infections\",\"name\":\"Omicron variant fuels spike in South Africa COVID infections - 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