South Africa’s president back to work after COVID isolation

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has returned to work following a week of isolation after testing positive for COVID-19. His office announced Monday that Ramaphosa had mild symptoms and was treated at his official residence in Cape Town by South Africa’s military health service as the country battled a wave of the virus dominated by the highly transmissible omicron variant. Ramaphosa is set to chair the last cabinet meeting of the year on Wednesday this week. South Africa’s 7-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 16.9 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 5 to 33.8 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 19.