Coronavirus hospitalizations are sharply increasing in a South African province that has been identified as an early hotspot of the omicron variant, raising concerns about the new strain as health officials work to learn more about its transmissibility and severity. The Gauteng province — which includes Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa — has seen hospitalizations spike by almost 400 percent since the beginning of November, according to NBC News. During the week ending Nov. 6, hospitalizations in the province rose from 120 to 580, according to data from South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), cited by...