South Africa’s government, buoyed by encouraging data showing that infections from the Omicron variant aren’t as severe, has dropped quarantine restrictions for all but symptomatic people. That includes allowing people who have tested positive but show no symptoms to gather with others, so long as they wear a mask andContinue Reading

President Biden will remove the ban on travel between the United States and countries in southern Africa at midnight on Dec. 31, a senior administration official said on Friday, reversing restrictions imposed last month to combat the spread of the Omicron variant. The region’s leaders had denounced the ban asContinue Reading

JOHANNESBURG — As South Africa faces increasing pressure over its close ties to Russia, the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said on Tuesday that leaders from six African countries would visit Moscow and Kyiv on a “peace mission” in a bid to end the war in Ukraine. Mr. Ramaphosa said bothContinue Reading

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said on Tuesday that his party, the African National Congress, had decided “it is prudent” to withdraw from the International Criminal Court — only for representatives for him and the party to later clarify that neither was actually advocating quitting the court, at leastContinue Reading

Bruce Haigh, an Australian diplomat who brushed aside the protocols of his profession to offer covert support to anti-apartheid figures in South Africa, including the banned newspaper editor depicted in the movie “Cry Freedom,” died on April 7 in Australia. He was 77. His sister, Christina Henderson, told Australian newsContinue Reading

Five weeks of data from the administrative capital Pretoria and the surrounding municipality show that hospitalizations are lower across all age groups. Among those aged 60 years and older, rates of severe illness appear to be 50 percent lower, compared with the Delta wave. This age group is also theContinue Reading

The police in the southern Indian state of Karnataka have arrested four people on suspicion of helping a South African man leave India with a fake negative coronavirus test report, officials said on Tuesday. The South African tested positive for the coronavirus when he arrived in the city of BengaluruContinue Reading

JOHANNESBURG — An early study of coronavirus cases in South Africa suggests that, so far, Omicron seems to cause lower rates of hospitalization than previous versions of the virus. The study — which was released on Tuesday and is based on only three weeks of data — points to lessContinue Reading

JOHANNESBURG — An early study of coronavirus cases in South Africa suggests that, so far, Omicron seems to cause lower rates of hospitalization than previous versions of the virus. The study — which was released on Tuesday and is based on only three weeks of data — points to lessContinue Reading

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — In early November, I flew to southern Africa to report a series of stories about the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in the region, including one about the remarkable work being done to stanch the emergence of new coronavirus variants. My last afternoon there, South AfricanContinue Reading