The South African government said Thursday that data from its health department suggested that the country had passed its omicron peak without a major spike in deaths, offering cautious hope to other countries grappling with the variant.
"The speed with which the omicron-driven fourth wave rose, peaked and then declined has been staggering,” said Fareed Abdullah of the South African Medical Research Council. "Peak in four weeks and precipitous decline in another two. This omicron wave is over in the city of Tshwane. It was a flash flood more than a wave.” The rise in deaths over the period was small, and in the last week, officials said, "marginal.”
Some scientists were quick to forecast the same pattern elsewhere.