Amidst claims that the Omicron wave had passed its “peak” in the country, South Africa has announced major relaxations for its citizens, doing away with the need for any quarantine for contacts of people confirmed with the infection. In new guidelines issued on Thursday, the South African government said the requirement for quarantine was being done away with both for vaccinated as well as unvaccinated contacts. Contacts would no longer be required to undergo diagnostic tests either, unless they show symptoms. The country has also stopped contact tracing, except in congregate settings and cluster outbreak situations. But the country began providing booster doses to its citizens for the first time on Friday. The US announced resumption of travel to and from countries in southern Africa, which had been banned in the wake of emergence of Omicron variant. Before this, scientists from South Africa’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases said there were indications that “we have surpassed the peak of infections in Gauteng (the province where Omicron was first detected and was the most widespread),” CNN reported. The institute cited a drop in cases in all the provinces. On Friday, it reported the detection of 18,847 new coronavirus cases, which was less than the over 20,000 cases that were being reported in recent days.
