{"id":47145,"date":"2021-12-13T03:23:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T03:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47145"},"modified":"2021-12-13T03:23:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T03:23:44","slug":"south-africas-cyril-ramaphosa-has-covid-19-presidency-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47145","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s Cyril Ramaphosa has COVID-19, presidency says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"article__subhead css-1wt8oh6\">South African president is self-isolating in Cape Town and is receiving treatment for mild symptoms, presidency says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"101.13751051304\">\n<p>South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has tested positive for COVID-19 and is receiving treatment for mild symptoms, his office said.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa, who is fully vaccinated, began feeling unwell after leaving a state memorial service for former President <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/program\/inside-story\/2021\/11\/13\/whats-the-legacy-of-south-africas-last-apartheid-era-president\">F W de Klerk<\/a> in Cape Town on Sunday, it said.<\/p>\n<p>The 69-year-old leader is now self-isolating in Cape Town and is being monitored by the South African Military Health Service, it said.<\/p>\n<p>He has delegated all responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week.<\/p>\n<p>The presidency did not say whether Ramaphosa had been infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>The highly mutated variant, which was first detected in South Africa last month, has sparked <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/12\/9\/uk-covid-separated-families\">global panic<\/a> over fears that it is more contagious than other strains of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>The presidency said Ramaphosa and his team had been tested for COVID-19 multiple times last week during visits to four West African countries.<\/p>\n<p>Some in the president\u2019s delegation tested positive in Nigeria and returned directly to South Africa. Throughout the rest of the trip, Ramaphosa and his delegation tested negative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president and the delegation returned to South Africa from the Republic of Senegal on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, after obtaining negative test results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president also tested negative on his return to Johannesburg on December 8,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>The statement quoted Ramaphosa as saying that his own infection served as a warning to all citizens of the importance of getting vaccinated and remaining vigilant against exposure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVaccination remains the best protection against severe illness and hospitalisation,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"770\" height=\"434\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WOdNKU4_l7I?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople who have had contact with the president today are advised to watch for symptoms or to have themselves tested,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa is currently battling a rapid resurgence driven by the Omicron variant, health officials say.<\/p>\n<p>In early November, South Africa was recording about 200 new cases, but infections began <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/12\/6\/south-africa-prepares-for-unprecedented-spike-in-covid-cases\">rising dramatically<\/a> soon after.<\/p>\n<p>The country recorded more than 18,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>More than 70 percent of the cases are estimated to be from Omicron, according to genetic sequencing surveys.<\/p>\n<p>So far, the majority of cases have been relatively mild, and the percentage of severe cases needing oxygen have been low, say doctors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African president is self-isolating in Cape Town and is receiving treatment for mild symptoms, presidency says.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has tested positive for COVID-19 and is receiving treatment for mild symptoms, his office said. Ramaphosa, who is fully vaccinated, began feeling unwell after leaving a state memorial service for former President F W&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}