johannesburg the newlydiscovered omicron variant is likely to fuel a surge in south africas coronavirus cases that could see daily infections treble this week a top epidemiologist warned mondayhealth monitors reported over 2800 infections on sunday up from a daily average of 500 in the previous week and 275 the week beforewe can expect that higher transmissibility is likely and so we are going to get more cases quickly dr salim abdool karim said at an online health ministry press briefingi am expecting we will top over 10000 cases by the end of the week per day and pressure on hospitals within the next two three weekssouth african scientists announced the new highlymutated variant on thursday blaming it for a sudden rise in infections in africas worsthit nationthe world health organization who has designated omicron a variant of concern and is still assessing its virulence although experts agree it is likely to be highly infectiousthere is also concern the variant could be more resistant to certain antibodies although its ability to evade vaccines is still being assessedthe severity of the disease it causes has not yet been determined although initial evidence suggests symptoms are relatively mildeven if omicron is not clinically worse and certainly the anecdotes dont raise any red flags just yet we are going to see rising cases in all likelihood because of the rapidity of transmission karim saiddozens of countries have implemented travel bans on south africa and its neighbours in a bid to keep omicron out although the variant now been detected in at least 11 other countries