with 85–95% of these excess deaths attributable to covid-19, and the remaining 5–15% probably mainly due to overwhelming of the health services. on 8 may, the national institute for communicable diseases confirmed that they had sequenced covid-19 specimens from individuals who had recently travelled to india. this resulted in that four of the specimens tested positive for b.1.617.2 (two cases from gauteng and two from kwazulu-natal). eleven cases were also detected of the b.1.1.7 variant of concern, which has a higher transmissibility and is more lethal than south africa's dominant b.1.351. on 30 may, president ramaphosa, due to a surge in covid-19 infections, addressed the nation announcing the tightening of restrictions from adjusted level lockdown 1 to 2, beginning on 31 may 2021. the third covid-19 wave had taken hold. june 2021 on 15 june 2021 president cyril ramaphosa announced that the country was moved to alert level 3 due to the third wave. on 28 june 2021, the country was moved to adjusted level 4, with the delta variant fast becoming the dominant strain in the country. on 9 july 2021, sixteen months into the pandemic, doctors in johannesburg described the system there as beyond its breaking point, with insufficient beds and barely enough oxygen. on 27 june 2021, in a national address, the president announced the tightening of restrictions with a move to adjusted level 4 beginning on 28 june 2021. july 2021 the us delivers pfizer covid-19 vaccines to south africa as part of the covax initiative in 2021 on 9 july, sixteen months into the pandemic, doctors in johannesburg described the system there as beyond its breaking point, with insufficient beds and barely enough oxygen. on the 11th, the president cyril ramaphosa addressed the nation. he announced the continuation of adjusted level 4 restrictions, with some modifications to better tackle the third wave. on the 12th, the president announced that because of the 2021 south african unrest some covid-19 vaccination sites and clinics had been closed in gauteng and kwazulu-natal provinces. on the 25th the president announced moving the country to adjusted level 3 restrictions. august 2021 the highly mutated c.1.2 lineage variant, first detected in may, is reported to be of potential interest. september 2021 on 12 september 2021, the president announced the lowering of restrictions to adjusted alert level 2 taking effect on 13 september. on 13 september 2021 an adjusted alert level 2 took effect, and on 1 october 2021 more restrictions were eased by moving to adjusted alert level 1. october 2021 on 1 october 2021 more restrictions were eased by moving to adjusted alert level 1. november 2021 on 25 november 2021, a new heavily mutated coronavirus variant, b.1.1.529, later called omicron which spread from neighboring botswana, was announced. several countries announced travel bans from south africa, including: australia, canada, france, germany, hungary, indonesia, italy, malaysia, mauritius, singapore, south korea, sri lanka, thailand, the united kingdom, and the united states. countries that banned entry to all foreign travelers include israel, japan, and morocco (also banning moroccan citizens). on 28 november 2021, president cyril ramaphosa addressed the nation. he stated that there would be no immediate change in the country's coronavirus alert level because of the recently discovered omicron variant. he also asked countries that had imposed travel bans on south africa and its sister countries to reverse their decision. fourth wave: december 2021 – april 2022 december 2021 on 8 december, the national institute for communicable diseases (nicd) reported nearly 20,000 new covid-19 cases - a record since the omicron variant was detected. it was not immediately clear how many of the infections were caused by omicron. on 12 december, president ramaphosa tested positive for covid-19. on 30 december, government lifted more lockdown restrictions including curfew. modelling by who's regional office for africa suggests that due to under-reporting, the true cumulative number of infections by the end of 2021 was around 30 million while the true number of covid-19 deaths was around 92 thousand. january 2022 on the 31st, the adjusted alert level 1 was changed by not requiring isolation for those who tested positive but have no symptoms. those who tested positive but had symptoms, had to isolate for only 7 days (instead of the previous 10 days). contacts did not have to isolate unless they developed symptoms. primary, secondary, and special schools returned to daily attendance; and the requirement of social distancing of 1 meter in schools, was removed. april 2022 on midnight 4 april 2022, the national state of disaster was ended although some transitional provisions remained in place for a period of 30 days. fifth wave: may 2022 – present may 2022 in may 2022, the country entered a fifth wave. samples taken between may and october showed that the rapidly spreading ba.5.2.1.7 variant was present in south africa. june 2022 on 22 june, in a notification published in the government gazette, health minister joe phaahla repealed the country's covid-19 laws, which abolished covid restrictions such as the use of face masks.