President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that the national coronavirus command council will be meeting on Tuesday morning following the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant.
Researchers at Stellenbosch University detected the country’s first case of the XBB.1.5 coronavirus subvariant, also known as the ‘Kraken’, which has caused some anxiety among South Africans.
However, President Ramaphosa says there is no need to panic as government needs to be appraised of what is happening with this variant before being able to impart the information to the rest of the country.
The Health Department says it will issue an advisory on the impending announcement and has, in the meantime, urged citizens to vaccinate, get booster shots, and adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions to curb the spread of the disease.
XBB.1.5
This new subvariant was first discovered in October 2022 and is now spreading in Europe and the USA.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has now been detected in 25 countries.
