South Africa says it is ending efforts to trace contacts of people infected with Covid-19 as it believes most of the population has already been exposed to the virus, reports AFP.

Health Department chief Sandile Buthelezi said in a circular sent to provincial officials that the government was now shifting to a mitigation strategy that stressed self-monitoring and measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing.

Buthelezi wrote that the “proportion of people with some immunity from infection and/or vaccination is high.”

“Containment strategies are no longer appropriate — mitigation is the only viable strategy. [This is] especially true of the newer, more infectious/transmissible variants like Omicron,” he said.

“All contact tracing [will] be stopped with immediate effect,” he added.