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Minister says hospitalizations are up but still lower than previous waves. and our david mckenzie is in johannesburg. he joins us now live. david, despite a wave of omicron infections in south africa, hospitalization rates are still lower than previous waves. and there's a lack of any new restrictions. what's going on here? how do they explain this? >> rosemary, first the situation. currently there are a very high number of cases in south africa. in fact the positivity rate overnight was more than 30%. that would be considered extremely high during previous waves. but they haven't seen the rus...

That first wave and then it gets quiet, right? lots of infection-acquired immunity. but it only lasts a few months because then you get the beta wave, then it gets quiet, then delta. this tells two stories, what you're seeing here. first the idea of infection-acquired immunity, which is a big topic of conversation. it doesn't last that long. that's what that south african data tells us. but the far right of the screen tells you something as well. before omicron really popped onto the scene here, it was quiet in south africa. it was late spring. omicron didn't have anything to compete against. ...

It's past flu season, so this is the trend we've seen since the last several months. this is one of the lowest vaccinated places in the world, don, so when you look at this, keep that in mind. that first wave and then it gets quite, right? lots of infection-acquired immunity. but it only lasts a few months because then you get the beta wave, then it gets quiet, then delta. this tells two stories, what you're seeing here. first the idea of infection-acquired immunity, which is a big topic of conversation. it doesn't last that long. that's what that south african data tells us. but the far right...