NOW FOR OMICRON

FOR a while we were doing okay. We’d emerged from the third wave and our Covid-19 caseload was the lowest it had been since the start of the pandemic.

Europe was dominating headlines as it became the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic once more – Austria went into full lock-down and restrictions were put on public life in several countries.

Here, though, we were daring to dream that we might not have a severe fourth wave, especially as we’d already seen the worst of the Delta variant run rampant throughout Europe.

And then – seemingly overnight – South Africa and its neighbouring countries once again became the pariahs of the pandemic when SA scientists reported the discovery of a