South Africa In New Surge Of COVID From Versions Of Omicron

South Africa's new cases have gone from an average of 300 per day in early April to about 8,000 per day in mid-May.

South Africa is experiencing a surge of new COVID-19 cases driven by two Omicron sub-variants, according to health experts.

For about three weeks the country has seen increasing numbers of new cases and somewhat higher hospitalizations, but not increases in severe cases and deaths, said Professor Marta Nunes, a researcher at Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

"We're still very early in this increase period, so I don't want to really call it a wave," Nunes said. "We are seeing a slight, a small increase in hospitalizations and really very few deaths."