The Ministry of Health warned the public not to fall prey to false reports about the new variant of Covid-19.
The department said it noted an inflated report circulating on social media platforms about the discovery of a new sub-variant of Covid-19 Omicron called BA.2.75.
Spokesman Foster Mohale confirmed that this subvariant (BA.2.75), which was first identified in July 2022, is of interest but not cause for concern.
“So it had no impact or severity compared to the dominant sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5.”
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“We are in daily contact with the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Genomic Surveillance Network teams, and there is no need for public panic because the subvariant has had no impact,” Mohale said.
Covid-19 is not over
Mohale added that the pandemic is not over.
“The lifting of Covid-19 restrictions does not mean that the pandemic is over, so we recommend that all unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people get vaccinated and get revaccinated at the nearest public health facility.”
“This is because the department continues to record positive cases and deaths related to COVID-19 on a weekly basis, which confirms that we are not completely out of the woods,” he said.
Death from the Covid-19 vaccine
Earlier this week, South African Medicines Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) to confirm that a second person has died of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) after being vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson(J&J) Covid-19 vaccine.
Sahpra said the evaluation of the case was done by the National Expert Committee on Immunization Safety (NISEC) using World Health Organization (WHO) methodology.
“As previously reported, GBS is a very rare but potentially serious neurological adverse event associated with the administration of various vaccines and other drugs, and can also be triggered by certain bacterial or viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2.” .
Symptoms of GBS range from mild to severe and can include muscle weakness, muscle pain, numbness, and tingling.
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