Dr. Thiero Balde, the World Health Organization's regional COVID-19 manager in Africa, said on Thursday South Africa had seen a 255 per cent increase in infections in the past seven days, but only six per cent of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients. The WHO's coordinator of its immunization and vaccine development program for Africa said the continent accounted for 46 per cent of reported Omicron COVID-19 variant cases so far.