Having set off the latest global COVID panic, this time focusing on the omicron strain, which was hastily labeled a variant of concern by the WHO over the long holiday weekend in the US, South Africa's top epidemiologists now find themselves in the awkward position of having to walk back all - or at least some - of the hysteria first unleashed by news of the omicron variant.

As US stocks bounce back from steep Friday losses at Monday's open, yet another SA official has chimed in, warning that the world still has much to learn about omicron, and that symptoms might be less severe than initially feared. Of course, this notion isn't exactly news, as plenty of experts inside South Africa and elsewhere have warned over the weekend that the new variant might be more mild, if also more transmissible, than previous variants.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chairwoman of the South African Medical Association, affirmed Monday that while the omicron variant appears to spread more quickly than earlier strains, its symptoms appear to be less severe, meaning the new strain - while more infectious - might also prove less deadly than the delta strain, which is the most dominant COVID strain on the planet right now.