South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned the country is now heading “into a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections”.

Axar.az reports that this was reported by foreign media.

“We are experiencing a rate of infections that we have not seen since the pandemic started,” he said in a statement, adding that the Omicron variant "appears to be dominating new infections in most provinces".

"Over the last week, the number of daily infections has increased five-fold. Nearly a quarter of all Covid-19 tests now come back positive," the president said.

He stressed that the authorities "have been preparing hospitals to admit more patients".

Omicron was first detected in South Africa in November, quickly spreading around the world despite travel bans and other restrictions.