South Africa Omicron
June 22, 2026
24 min
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363 of 364
June 22, 2026
South Africa Omicron
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Dr John Campbell Episodes Around June 22, 2026
Episode 363 of 364 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
24:49This episodeSouth Africa Omicron
Summary
South Africa illuminates our future
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
South Africa, omicron situation and trends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4EwCFqiJag
Cases, + 26,976
Will increase for the next few weeks
Positivity, 32.2%
Deaths, + 54
Professor Shabir Madhi
Gauteng
Cases probably peaked
More transmissibility
Combined with more population prior immunity
Three to four weeks, down from 8 weeks in previous waves
Uncoupling of cases severe disease and death rate
Delta
20,000 reported cases per day resulted in with 250 to 300 deaths
Omicron
Deaths 10 times less
Omicron not less virulent
But more community immunity
Antibodies and T cells
Omicron is antibody evasive
T cytotoxic immunity is relatively well conserved
This is what is causing the uncoupling
T cells come from infection and vaccination
Gauteng, serum survey 73% have been infected by the virus, this has led to a lot of T cell immunity
Both will protect against severe disease
https://www.discovery.co.za/corporate/news-room
https://www.discovery.co.za/corporate/news-room
Data from the first three weeks of the Omicron-driven wave in South Africa
Data, spanning clinical records, vaccination records, pathology test results
3.7 million people
Omicron: A highly transmissible variant causing rapid community spread
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2
Fuelling South Africa’s fourth wave
Genomic Surveillance, Omicron over 90% of new infections
Has displaced Delta variant
The Omicron-driven fourth wave has a significantly steeper trajectory of new infections relative to prior waves.
National data show an exponential increase in both new infections and test positivity rates
Vaccine effectiveness during the current Omicron wave
SAMRC, n= 211,000 positive tests
41% from adult members who had received two doses of the Pfizer
78,000 of these COVID-19 test results were attributed to Omicron infections
To-date laboratory analysis has provided early insights into potential reduction in the effect of neutralising antibodies against the Omicron variant
Two doses of the Pfizer
Two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination provides significant protection against hospitalisation in individuals with Omicron variant infection