Another week has begun and we are no closer to knowing when the current phase of the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout will begin in earnest. This as only 289 787 vaccines have been administered to frontline healthcare workers in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa. As such, the initial plan for phase three, where the general population would be inoculated at the start of November, looks less and less likely.
While we await word on how the National Department of Health (NDoH) plans to ramp up its vaccine efforts, we still have to contend with keeping the number of new daily infections as low as possible. Looking at the latest report from the department, we’re doing a decent job on that front as only 655 new cases have been reported over the past 24 hours.
This has pushed the total number of infections recorded to date to 1 559 113, with 1 484 356 recoveries also being recorded. The latter sees no change in the recovery rate, which stagnates at 95 percent currently.
Unfortunately, the NDoH has also confirmed that 34 new fatalities have been reported as well, with the majority coming from the Eastern Cape at at 14. This sees the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa rise to 53 356.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 284 321 | 267 838 | 16 483 | 11 515 |
Eastern Cape | 195 690 | 184 029 | 11 661 | 11 388 |
Northern Cape | 37 130 | 33 160 | 2 859 | 840 |
Free State | 84 654 | 79 261 | 5 393 | 3 740 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 335 177 | 318 983 | 16 194 | 10 271 |
North West | 64 882 | 61 143 | 3 739 | 1 561 |
Mpumalanga | 76 291 | 74138 | 2 153 | 1 373 |
Gauteng | 417 526 | 404 870 | 12 656 | 10 425 |
Limpopo | 63 442 | 60 934 | 2 508 | 2 243 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 559 113 | 1 484 356 | 74 757 | 53 356 |
As always, in order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:
- Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
- COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
- World Health Organisation
- SA Coronavirus website
- SA Government
- SA Presidency
[Image – Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash]