A sign of what’s to come for others? South Africa’s Omicron wave has ‘subsided’ after striking up to HALF of nation as doctor says they’re now in a ‘good place’

South Africa's Omicron wave has completely collapsed and the country has reached the 'turning point in the pandemic', a doctor on the frontline in Johannesburg claimed today amid growing hopes that Britain's outbreak will also be short-lived.

Professor Shabir Madhi, a vaccine expert at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the variant was 'very much subsiding' and had already 'pretty much subsided' in Gauteng — the first province to fall victim to the extremely-infectious variant.

He estimated up to 50 per cent of the country's 58.8million people caught Omicron since it first emerged, despite just 500,000 infections being recorded since the strain was first spotted on November 23.

While Covid infections soared to an 'unprecedented' level, Professor Madhi said there was a 'complete uncoupling' of hospitalisation and deaths. Figures show hospitalisations barely reached a third of rates seen in previous peaks, while fatalities stayed 10 times lower.

Professor Madhi told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think we are in a good place in South Africa and I think we've reached the turning point in this pandemic.'

It comes after another 8,078 cases were recorded in South Africa yesterday, a rise of 12 per cent in a week, after tumbling for 17 days in a row. Officially, daily cases peaked at nearly 27,000 on December 15.

Hospital admissions also rose 8 per cent with 309 reported, however they have also been trending downwards for the past fortnight. Deaths — the biggest lagging indicator — rose to 139, the highest since the Omicron wave took off. But they are still a far cry from the 600 per day at the peak of the Delta wave.

The shrinking wave comes despite only a quarter of South Africans being double-jabbed. There is growing hope that Britain's variant-fuelled outbreak will follow a similar trajectory, where more than 70 per cent have had two jabs and half have had three.

In London — the UK's Omicron epicentre — infections and hospitalisations appear to be flatlining already. There were 347 admissions in the capital on New Year's Day, the latest day with data, down 7 per cent compared to the previous week. It is the second day in a row admissions have fallen week-on-week.

While daily infections nationally are running at record levels — 218,000 Britons tested positive yesterday — the number of Covid patients in hospital is still a fraction of previous peaks.

There are 15,000 Covid inpatients now compared to nearly 40,000 last January and about a third of current patients are not primarily sick with the virus. Fewer sufferers are also requiring ventilation.

Professor Madhi told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Across the country the wave is very much subsiding.

'Certainly, what was initially the epicentre Gauteng, the wave has pretty much subsided and what we’ve experienced is an unprecedented number of cases compared to what was experienced in the past.

Professor Madhi said: 'This time around it‘s probably been a greater proportion of the population that has been infected.

'South Africa does about one fourteenth of UK testing. So when we report about 25,000 cases per day you could probably multiply that by about 14.

'My estimate is it is about 40 to 50 per cent of people in South Africa possibly have been infected during the course of this particular wave.'

High levels of immunity among the population from previous Covid infections prevented further cases and drove down transmission, he said.

But Professor Madhi warned South Africa's experience with Omicron may not be replicated in the UK and other countries that do not have high levels of natural immunity.

Around three-quarters of South Africans are thought to have been infected before Omicron emerged, but just 25 per cent have had a least one Covid jab.

Experts estimate less than half of people in the UK have had Covid, while 90 per cent of over-12s have had at least one jab.

He said: 'The big question is whether immunity primarily through vaccination plays the same role against protecting against severe disease as does natural infection-derived immunity. And I believe it does.'

Professor Madhi said it is 'certainly unpredictable as to what the next variant will look like' but T-cell protection from infection and vaccination protects against severe disease and is 'relatively well-preserved'.

'So I think we are in a good place in South Africa and I think we've reached the turning point in this pandemic,' he added.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10371035/A-sign-whats-come-Britain-South-Africas-Omicron-wave-subsided.html

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CDC: Omicron Now 95 Percent of All New US COVID-19 Cases

The COVID-19 Omicron variant accounted for approximately 95.4 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases diagnosed in the week ended Jan. 1, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in an update published Tuesday.

With the CDC’s finding, it suggests Omicron is highly contagious, as it was able to displace the previously dominant Delta strain in only a few weeks. The Delta variant now accounts for about 4.6 percent of all cases, the CDC figures show.

About two weeks ago, the CDC reported that Omicron only accounted for about 38 percent of all COVID-19 cases for the week ending on Dec. 18. The agency significantly revised its estimates for Omicron’s prevalence for the week ending on Dec. 25 from 73 percent to about 58 percent.

The United States, meanwhile, set a global record of almost 1 million new coronavirus infections reported on Monday, according to a tally, nearly double the country’s peak of 505,109 hit just a week ago.

About 978,856 new infections that were reported Monday include some cases from Saturday and Sunday, when many states do not report. The average number of U.S. deaths per day has remained fairly steady throughout December and into early January at about 1,300, according to a Reuters tally.

“We are seeing more and more studies pointing out that Omicron is infecting the upper part of the body. Unlike other ones, the lungs who would be causing severe pneumonia,” World Health Organization (WHO) Incident Manager Abdi Mahamud told Swiss-based journalists on Tuesday.

He said it is good news, “but we really require more studies to prove that.”

Since the heavily mutated variant was first detected in November, WHO data show it has spread quickly and emerged in at least 128 countries. However, while case numbers have surged to all-time records around the world, the hospitalization and death rates are often lower than at other phases in the pandemic.

“What we are seeing now is … the decoupling between the cases and the deaths,” Mahamud said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/cdc-omicron-now-95-percent-of-all-new-us-covid-19-cases_4192999.html

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Frontline Doctor Highlights His Preferred COVID-19 Treatments

While the Omicron variant of COVID seems to be causing less severe disease than the Delta variant, it’s still landing some people in hospitals, highlighting the need for effective treatment before cases progress to that stage, a frontline doctor says.

Dr. Syed Haider has treated more than 4,000 COVID-19-positive patients so far during the pandemic. Just five ended up going to a hospital, and none have died.

The doctor said his preferred treatments include many off-label medications along with vitamins and supplements.

“Vitamin D is really important, ivermectin is important, fluvoxamine, hydroxychloroquine also works, it’s just a lot of people have been convinced that it doesn’t at this point, and are scared off of trying it,” Haider told NTD’s “Capitol Report.” “But I prefer ivermectin, fluvoxamine, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, quercetin, zinc.”

Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic that has had mixed results against COVID-19 in clinical trials and isn’t advised by the Food and Drug Administration to treat the disease. Fluvoxamine is an antidepressant that’s gaining popularity for use against COVID-19. Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial that has shown some success in treating the disease. Quercetin is a plant pigment that’s not widely known yet as a treatment for COVID-19.

Haider has also recommended flax seed oil.

“One really easy thing that anyone can do is just follow the directions on a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, you can get this at the store, can dilute it down to 1 percent swish swish it through your nose, or swish it through your mouth and drip it into your nose or use a neti pot to rinse out your nose. And it’s not uncomfortable, it shouldn’t be burning, if it’s burning, you would want to dilute it a little bit more, and that kills the virus on contact,” he said.

Haider’s list differs from the National Institutes of Health’s recently updated treatment recommendations for non hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The agency recommends using Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill, known as paxlovid; Merck’s pill, called molnupiravir; GlaxoSmithKline’s monoclonal antibody treatment, sotrovimab; or Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir, administered through IV over multiple days.

The recommendations stem from studies that demonstrate the therapeutics’ effectiveness, the agency said.

Haider, however, doesn’t agree with the remdesivir recommendation, noting it’s never received an endorsement from the World Health Organization and that it has the side effect of causing kidney failure.

The virus that causes COVID-19, he said, is “very, very easily treatable” if early treatment is done with off-label drugs, Haider stressed.

He advises people get prepared ahead of time.

“I think people need to take this seriously and get medications on hand before they get sick,” Dr. Syed Haider told “Capitol Report.”

While Omicron often manifests as a bad cold, even some people who are considered at low-risk of developing severe disease will end up with severe cases, the doctor said. Additionally, emerging data indicate that the protection provided by both vaccination and natural immunity isn’t as good against Omicron, emphasizing the need to be ready.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/frontline-doctor-highlights-his-preferred-covid-19-treatments_4192746.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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