Covid infections in South Africa have tripled in a week, with a quarter of all those tested infected with the virus, official figures show as Omicron continues to sweep across the country. The National Institute For Communicable Diseases reported another 13,147 cases in the last 24 hours, up 200 per cent on the figure last Tuesday. The figure is more than double the 6,381 recorded yesterday, which was low due to reduced testing over the weekend. But the positivity rate has remained around a quarter over both days. Some 52,890 people were tested in the last 24 hours and 24.9 per cent were confirmed as Covid cases. And 27 deaths were recorded, a 29 per cent week-on-week increase. It comes as Boris Johnson today said Omicron appears 'more transmissible' than Delta. And top epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector, from King's College London, claimed cases of the highly-evolved variant were doubling every two days, faster than initially feared. It is unclear what impact the strain will have on severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths, but experts fear its extensive mutations will enable it to dodge protection from two doses of Covid jabs and previous infections. Scientists have warned the new super strain could become dominant in the UK in a matter of weeks and estimated the variant makes up almost two per cent of all new infections, equating to 1,000 people every day. Doctors on the ground are so far reporting that cases have been mild. But experts warn the variant spreading among younger age groups and the lag between catching the virus and becoming seriously unwell could be masking the severity of the new strain. Top scientists warn that even if it is not more lethal, the NHS will still face more pressure from Omicron than other variants because of the sheer number of people who will get ill. The National Institute For Communicable Diseases reported another 13,147 cases in the last 24 hours, up 200 per cent on the figure last Tuesday. Some 52,890 people were tested in the last 24 hours and 24.9 per cent were confirmed as Covid cases. And 27 deaths were recorded, a 29 per cent week-on-week increase South Africa's cases have skyrocketed since Omicron was first discovered, with around a quarter of all those tested in the last six days being infected with the virus. Boris tells Cabinet Omicron IS 'more transmissible' Boris Johnson today told ministers that the Omicron Covid variant appears to be even more transmissible than Delta, raising fresh doubts about Christmas freedoms. Updating his Cabinet on the latest situation this morning, the Prime Minister admitted it was too early to tell if the super-mutant strain was indeed worse but 'early indications' pointed in that direction. Ministers did not debate resorting to No10's Plan B strategy of working from home and vaccine passports, despite grim warnings about the threat of facing Britain in the coming weeks. Recounting the weekly Downing Street meeting however, the PM's official spokesman did insist the Government would act 'swiftly' if needed, once again dangling the possibility of another festive lockdown if Omicron continues to spiral. It comes after top epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector, from King's College London, claimed cases of the highly-evolved variant were doubling every two days, faster than initially feared. Advertisement For comparison, the UK's positivity rate on December 1 was 4.3 per cent — with 1.2million tests conducted and more than 51,000 testing positive. The vast majority of cases in South Africa remain concentrated in the Gauteng province, the epicentre of the outbreak, where 8,445 infections were recorded. KwaZulu-Natal, in the east, recorded 1,396 cases, while Western Cape registered 805 infections. Cases are growing fastest in Easter Cape, where infections have soared 717.1 per cent in the last week and KwaZulu-Natal, where the week-on-week rise is 659 per cent. Real-world data suggests the highly-evolved variant is three-and-a-half times more likely to infect people than Delta because of its combination of vaccine resistance, increased infectiousness and antibody escape. Meanwhile, 27 deaths were recorded — an increase of 28.6 per cent compared to last Tuesday's figure. The data comes after Mr Johnson told ministers at a Cabinet meeting today that it was too early to tell if Omicron does indeed spread easier than Delta but admitted the preliminary data pointed in that direction. Ministers have publicly ruled out resorting to No10's Plan B strategy of working from home and vaccine passports, despite grim warnings about the threat of facing Britain in the coming weeks. But Mr Johnson's official spokesman today dangled the possibility of another festive lockdown, insisting the Government would act 'swiftly' if needed. Official UK figures today showed there were 45,691 new positive tests over the last 24 hours, up 15 per cent on last Tuesday's figure of 39,716. Despite cases continuing to tick upwards, hospital admissions are flat (up 0.7 per cent on last week) but are expected to rise in the coming days in line with infections. Deaths appear to already be trickling upwards, jumping 13.2 per cent to 180. Experts have warned that if Omicron can infect far more people then it could cause a larger surge in admissions, even if only a small percentage need to be hospitalised. Asked whether Omicron could infect more people but make fewer people sick, Professor Spector told BBC Breakfast: 'If early reports pan out – we don't absolutely know this, we've got hardly any data in this country where we have high rates of vaccination – but if we assume that it is not more severe and possibly milder than Delta, but it's much more transmissible… 'So it means that perhaps twice as many people are going to pass it on from when someone gets it in a crowd. That's going to be good news for the individual because we have less cases going to hospital, and partly this is due to our high vaccination rates. 'But it's also means that eventually you will get more deaths and problems because nearly everyone is infected or re-infected. 'And so, this this means that for the country as a whole, it could be worse news but better for the individual. So it's absolutely no reason for complacency.' There has been a meteoric rise in Covid infections in South Africa in the fortnight since it alerted the world to Omicron's existence on November 24. Professor Spector, who runs the Covid ZOE symptom study, said that in around 10 days' time the UK could have more cases of Omicron than some countries it had put on the travel red list. He added: 'The official estimates are about 350-odd Omicron cases, and because the current testing is missing a lot of those, it's probably at least 1,000 to 2,000 I would guess at the moment. 'And we are expecting this to be doubling about every two days at the moment, so if you do your maths – say assumed it's 1,000 at the moment, and you think it's going to be doubling every two days, you can see that those numbers are going to be pretty (high) certainly in about 10 days time.' All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility