CAPE TOWN — South Africa has lifted a midnight to 4 a.m. curfew on people’s movement with immediate effect, believing the country has passed the peak of its fourth Covid-19 wave driven by the omicron variant, a government statement said on Thursday. South Africa is currently at the lowest of its five-stage Covid-19 alert levels. Sandile Cele, a researcher at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, works on the omicron variant. South Africa, with close to 3.5 million infections and 91,000 deaths, has been the worst-hit country in Africa during the pandemic on both counts. Failure to wear a mask in South Africa when required remains a criminal offence.

Source: Ethiopian News December 31, 2021 10:39 UTC