South Africa accelerates vaccination campaign amid surge

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME and ANDREW MELDRUM
Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa has accelerated its vaccination campaign with pop-up sites in shopping centers and at transportation hubs a week after the discovery of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. South Africa’s new daily cases nearly doubled to 8,561 Wednesday, from 4,373 a day earlier, according to official statistics. Scientists said they were bracing for the surge to continue. Tests indicate the omicron variant is spreading quickly and is now in five of South Africa’s nine provinces. It is not known how many of the new daily cases involve omicron because scientists can only do full genetic sequencing on a small number of positive tests.