The South African doctor who was the first to raise the alarm about patients with the Omicron variant says while we don’t know a lot about the new strain, so far we only seeing “mild cases”.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, Chair of South African Medical Association, says she is “concerned but also optimistic” given people who contract the variant aren’t getting severely ill.

“What we know about this new variant is not much except that we are seeing mild cases,” she said on 6PR Breakfast.

“We are seeing breakthrough infections of people vaccinated, but it’s not a lot.

“All of the cases so far, that most of the GPs have seen in the Pretoria, Midrand area is mild cases.

“We haven’t admitted anyone … there is not a huge influx of COVID-19 admissions, so for now it’s mild, it might change and their might be sick people in some of the hospitals that we’re not aware of it.

“But it’s not the predominant picture of severe disease that we are seeing now, it might change going forward, but for now this is what we see – mild disease.

Press PLAY to hear more from Dr Angelique Coetzee below 

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