South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, 69, has delegated his responsibilities to the deputy president after testing positive for COVID-19. On Sunday, Ramaphosa’s office announced his condition stating the president, who is fully vaccinated, was tested after not feeling well upon “leaving the state memorial service in honour of former deputy president F.W. de Klerk in Cape Town earlier today.”
The president is currently self-isolating in Cape Town and has delegated responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week. Ramaphosa visited multiple African countries last week and some of his delegation tested positive after a trip to Nigeria. The president and those with him were tested at each destination. The president is described as being in “good spirits”. His condition is being monitored by the South African Military Health Service of the South African National Defence Force.
It not known yet whether the president tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus which has spread to multiple countries but hit South Africa the hardest where it was first discovered. In a Sunday statement, it was announced that the country had recorded over 18,000 daily cases of Omicron. Thousands more ‘retrospective’ positive cases were also included on top of that number for new infections. South Africa has recorded more than 90,000 coronavirus deaths.
