South Africa says it is ending efforts to trace contacts of people infected with Covid as it believes most of the population have already been exposed to the virus.
Health Department chief Sandile Buthelezi said in a circular sent to provincial officials late Thursday that the government was now shifting to a mitigation strategy that stressed self-monitoring and measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing.
Buthelezi wrote that the "proportion of people with some immunity from infection and/or vaccination is high." "Containment strategies are no longer appropriate - mitigation is the only viable strategy. (This is) especially true of the newer, more infectious/transmissible variants like Omicron," he said.
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