With the rollout of Johnson & Johnson vaccines now suspended locally, the country is more uncertain than ever when it comes to its efforts in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa. This latest hurdle potentially adds several more months to the initial Sisonke Protocol rollout plan, which is further exacerbated due to the fact that there has no little to no word on when a large number of doses will land in the country to ramp up the inoculation process.
Despite all of this frustrating uncertainty, South Africans are still being urged to adhere to lockdown regulations in order to limit the spread of the virus and prevent a third wave of infections.
Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), the number of new daily infections follows the trend we’ve seen in recent weeks. This as 1 599 new cases have been reported over the past 24 hours, resulting in the total number of infections recorded to date now sitting at 1 561 559.
The department also reports no movement as far as the recovery rate goes, with it remaining a 95 percent, which it has done for a number of weeks now. That said, the number of recoveries has risen to 1 486 873, with over 10.21 million tests having been conducted so far, according to the NDoH.
Unfortunately, 75 new fatalities have also been reported, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal accounting for the most at 26 and 24 respectively.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 284 606 | 268 249 | 16 357 | 11 518 |
Eastern Cape | 195 738 | 184 064 | 11 674 | 11 410 |
Northern Cape | 37 332 | 33 215 | 2 859 | 842 |
Free State | 85 061 | 79 579 | 5 482 | 3 758 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 335 374 | 319 830 | 15 544 | 10 295 |
North West | 65 213 | 61 631 | 3 582 | 1 580 |
Mpumalanga | 76 559 | 74 225 | 2 334 | 1 373 |
Gauteng | 418 185 | 405 110 | 13 075 | 10 479 |
Limpopo | 63 491 | 60 970 | 2 521 | 2 243 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 561 559 | 1 486 873 | 74 686 | 53 498 |
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 Spencer Davis on Unsplash]