South African disease-expert, professor Salim Abdool Karim says Government’s investment in its genomic sequencing capabilities have paid off.

He says this investment helped local scientists detect the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Karim this week also criticized overseas countries for their over-hasty decisions, to suspend travel to and from South Africa, after the announcement of the discovery of the new variant.

He says the lessons learnt, during the first three waves of the pandemic, have enabled South Africa to address this new challenge.

Watch the full briefing here.

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What you need to know about the new #COVID19 #Variant #Omicron pic.twitter.com/cebbPdVC7X

— Department of Health (@HealthZA) November 29, 2021

To protect yourself against the #COVD19 #Omnicron #variant you still need to comply to health protocols pic.twitter.com/9PShttU6cB

— Department of Health (@HealthZA) November 28, 2021