<span style="color: #222222;">South Africa has recorded a sharp increase in Corona virus infections which have doubled across the country since Monday.<br />''<br />'' Health officials say the newly discovered Omicron variant may be fuelling the surge, although it isn't clear how many of the new cases it accounts for.<br />''<br />'' Some 8,500 COVID infections have been registered in the last 24 hours. South Africa was the first country to detect the highly mutated new variant which was announced last week.<br />''<br />'' The United States has identified its first Omicron case in someone who had returned to the country from South Africa.<br />''<br />''Many questions about the new variant remain to be answered, including whether it is more transmissible and how much protection current vaccines provide.</span><br />