In a statement, the South African government announced massive changes in its COVID-19 regulations. The story on this was originally published by Reuters and republished on February 1, 2022, by CNN.

Some of these changes include:

• No more testing and isolation for those without symptoms, even if they are close contacts of a COVID-positive patient.
• Individuals who test positive for COVID, but exhibit no symptoms are no longer required to isolate.
• Only symptomatic COVID-positive patients are required to isolate. Isolation time has decreased from 10 to seven days.
• Primary, secondary, and special schools will open like they did before the pandemic. There will be no A/B schedule, and no requirement for social distancing.

According to the government says that it is able to take these steps because the proportion of people with immunity to COVID has “risen substantially, exceeding 60 to 80% in several serosurveys”. This means 60 to 80% of South Africans now have COVID antibodies either through vaccination or natural immunity.

Editor’s Note: We will remember that in December 2021, South African health authorities already announced these changes in their COVID policies, but was forced to retract them following intense pressure from politicians and media [see South Africa forced to reinstate COVID-19 rules on testing and tracing due to political pressure]. It looks like now, with many European countries lifting pandemic restrictions, South African health experts have finally decided to put their foot down and seek the path back to normality.

Currently, only 34% of South Africa have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. Assuming that all 34% have developed COVID antibodies, then a bigger portion has received natural immunity after recovering from COVID infection.

This article is important because South Africa is probably the only low-vaccinated country in the world that has lifted its COVID restrictions. They are a testament to the fact that Omicron truly is a “safe and effective” vaccine, and that natural immunity is still the way out of a pandemic [Read EU Medical Chief: Natural immunity Against COVID Could be Offered by Omicron, Omicron makes vaccine mandates obsolete, Mainstream media: Omicron will give most people potent and durable protection against COVID. Also, read Finally Acknowledged by Mainstream Media: Natural immunity more potent than vaccines during US Delta Wave, New Study Shows Natural Immunity More Protective Over Time Than COVID Vaccination, Hundreds of Researches Confirm Natural Immunity is Complete and Longer-lasting, More Powerful than COVID Vaccines, Geert Vanden Boosche: Natural immunity, not vaccines, will create herd immunity].

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