Cape Town - Calls for mask wearing amid a new Covid-19 variant has been dismissed as fake news by the health department.
The Department of Health said it noted "a misleading message circulating through social media platforms" attributed to the Ministry of Health, calling for everyone to wear a mask because of the alleged detection of a new variant of concern.
"The department would like to dismiss this as fake news by faceless sources whose sole intention is to create unnecessary panic," the national department said in a statement.
"The fact of the matter is, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a notification in October this year (2022) on the Omicron sublineages BQ.1 and XBB detected around the world as part of ongoing work to track variants by Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE)."
The role of the TAG-VE, authorities explained, was to alert the WHO if a variant that could cause a more severe disease or lead to large epidemic waves was emerging and likely to pose a significant threat.
They confirmed that currently there was "no epidemiological evidence that these sublineages will be of substantially greater risk compared to other Omicron sublineages".
The department said it was working with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and other scientists to monitor all Covid-19 lineages.
They appealed to South Africans to continue to be vigilant as they embarked on festive season activities as "known Covid-19 virus variants are still in circulation".
"We are not off the hook from the pandemic, hence people are urged to vaccinate and take boosters shots that they qualify for to enhance their level of immunity," the health department added.
Cape Times