On the beaches of Durban, South African residents were already in the holiday mood as the first set of people starts arriving ahead for the long summer break.
However, the discovery of the new Omicron variant, bringing forth the fourth wave of infections across the country, is now a major concern for the holiday in this small town in KwaZulu-Natal province, as well as the businesses that have been hit with a new wave of international travel bans.
Due to this new Covid-19 variant, the annual party for school leavers, called Rage, was cancelled in Ballito at the very last minute earlier this week, with real money pokies set to a theme of the party.
A 43-year-old man by the name of Fana Dlamini admitted his worries while loading a bucket with seawater for use. He said: “The new variant? Yes, I’m worried,”
29-year-old Danila du Plessis was walking with her two children and said: “I’ve already had Covid. But we don’t know the symptoms of this new variant. So, I’m scared.” But she was also shocked when she realised that only a third of adults in the South Africa province have been vaccinated so far gone.
A twenty-five-year-old Sanele Shabalala is one of the many that are yet to be vaccinated. She said: “My problem is the government. We don’t believe in them, or the system.”
Saying this, her two sisters were nodding in agreement to admit that they haven’t been vaccinated too as they talked about the false claims of allergic reactions to the jabs that they came across on social media.
The arrival of the Omicron variant gave the health officials in the province a chance to step up and persuade the public, especially the younger people, to hurry up and get vaccinated.
While vaccine supplies have, sometimes, been chaotic and inconsistent, there is still no shortage of them in South Africa.
Ivy Kaunda, a community liaison worker with Caprisa, a leading HIV/Aids research institute, and a team of health activists have been going around the Umlazi district, trying to talk to the local people to convince them to get the vaccine, with best usa online casino confirming it with BBC.
“Social media is the problem, particularly among young men. They say they’ve heard that it will affect their sex drive,” she said, turning away from a group of builders.
Dr Nigel Garrett, Caprisa’s vaccine researcher, said to the media: “We think it’s more likely that you can be reinfected if you’ve had Covid before [compared to other variants]. That’s because of the mutations on the spike protein.”
The admissions in hospitals are continuously rising, but the severity of the new Omicron variant will be certain for at least another week or a fortnight.
