Infection rates are soaring across South Africa as a result of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, but fewer people have died or required hospital treatment compared to previous waves of Covid, health officials said.

“The hospitalisations are not increasing at such a dramatic rate,” Michelle Groome, of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, told a news conference.

“We are starting to see some increases, but relatively small increases in deaths.”

Wassila Jassat, also from the NICD, said the number of people requiring oxygen was “lower than what it was in comparison to any of the previous wave periods.”

“Patients do seem to stay for a shorter duration,” she said.