The government will step up Covid-19 testing and surveillance in response to the detection in SA last week of the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant XBB1.5, says health minister Joe Phaala.
But it will not impose any new coronavirus restrictions as there is no evidence it is causing more severe illness.
Briefing reporters after a meeting on Tuesday morning of the government’s top decision-making body on Covid-19, he said the National Coronavirus Command Council decided against imposing travel restrictions and agreed to step up SA’s vaccination programme, which has virtually ground to a halt.
Health officials are finalising plans to offer adults over 50 a third booster shot, while those aged 18-49 will be eligible for a second booster, provided at least six months have elapsed since their last jabs. The government, sole purchaser of Covid-19 vaccines, has 8-million Pfizer jabs, and 10-million Johnson & Johnson doses available.
XBB.1.5 has caused concern among scientists and health authorities because it is the most transmissible coronavirus strain detected to date, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Data available since it was first detected in the US late last year is limited. It is not yet clear whether it will cause a surge in infections and hospital admissions, or quietly replace other less transmissible strains.
XBB.1.5 is a descendant of XBB, which is a recombination of two other Omicron subvariants and contains a host of mutations on its spike protein that help it evade antibodies triggered by vaccines or prior infection, including infection with older Omicron strains.
It is now the second most common variant in the US, accounting for 28% of infections, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and its incidence is rising around the world as it outcompetes other less transmissible variants. The WHO said last week that XBB.1.5 had been detected in 28 countries, but it did not yet have data on its severity.
The first case of XBB.1.5 in SA was detected by University of Stellenbosch scientists on Friday, according to Tulio de Oliveira, director of its Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation. It was the only case of XBB.1.5 identified in 97 samples sequenced by the researchers, who are part of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in SA (NGS-SA) and was isolated from a sample taken on December 27, he said on Twitter.
NGS-SA was stepping up its genomics surveillance in SA, and supported dozens of other African countries, he said.
The minister said that contact tracing of the person with XBB.1.5 in SA was impossible as the samples sequenced by the researchers had been anonymised.
Provincial health departments have been advised to increase Covid-19 testing, and scientists are stepping up their surveillance of waste water, which provides an early signal of rising infections. Talks are under way with Chinese airlines to test the waste water from aeroplane toilets, with surveillance likely to commence next week, said National Institute of Communicable Diseases senior scientist Michelle Groome.
The WHO emergency committee that advises director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will meet on January 27 to consider whether the Covid-19 pandemic still represents a global emergency, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency of international concern, the WHO’s highest level of alert, in February 2020.
Several leading scientists and WHO advisers say it may be too early to declare the end of the Covid-19 pandemic emergency phase because of high levels of infections in China, which dismantled its zero-Covid policy last month.
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