The new infection cases of SARS CoV-2 triggered by the most contagious coronavirus variant Omicron are steeply rising in South Africa. The country reported 11,535 new cases in the last 24 hours with a high test positivity rate of 22.4 percent. The cases are mostly reported from the Gauteng province, the epicentre of the Omicron outbreak. The country registered 44 new deaths on Thursday, though most new cases are reportedly showing milder symptoms. The genome sequencing results released by the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases had revealed that over 74 percent of new infection cases are by the Omicron variant.