The number of new positive cases of COVID-19 reported in South Africa has continued its downward trend despite increased testing, according to South African National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) data. The NICD reported 17,154 new cases on Dec. 11, nearly 2,000 down from the 19,018 new cases reported on Dec. 10. At the same time the NICD recorded 104,831 new tests conducted on Dec. 11, which was over 20,000 more carried out than on Dec. 10. Professor Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute, noted a “dramatic decrease in test positivity,” which fell from 45 percent on Dec. 10 to 28 percent from Dec. 11. “The Omicron outbreak in SA [South Africa] with its extraordinary fast rise, and apparently nearly equally fast fall, is one of the most mind-boggling things I’ve ever seen during my career as an infectious disease epidemiologist,” Balloux stated on Twitter. While …