South Africa is readying hospitals for more admissions, as the Omicron variant pushes the country into a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday. South Africa’s daily infections surged last week to more than 16,000 on Friday from roughly 2,300 on Monday.

Ramaphosa said that Omicron appeared to be dominating new cases in most of the country and urged more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “South Africa now has sufficient supplies of vaccines, ... vaccination is essential for our economic recovery because as more people are vaccinated more areas of economic activity will be opened up,” he said.