As we exit a weekend under level 3 lockdown, we are greeted by another bout of colder weather. This places even more pressure on the current vaccine rollout, which has proved slow to date while a third wave of infections continues to wreck havoc as the National Department of Health (NDoH) continues to battle COVID-19 in South Africa.

According to the latest figures shared by the department, 13 155 new cases have ben recorded over the past 24 hours, while more than 12.54 million tests have been conducted to date. The former statistic sees the total number of recorded infections climb to 1 823 319, as the recovery rate drops again to 90.4 percent. As it currently stands, the number of recoveries to date now totals 1 647 503.

Looking at the other figures in the report, unfortunately 112 new fatalities have also been reported in the past 24 hours. The death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa rises to 58 702 as a result.

As for the vaccine rollout, the latest update as of 23:59 on 19th June confirms that 2 121 624 vaccines have been administered to date, with 1 661 856 of these being the first dose of Pfizer vaccine, which requires a second dose to be administered six weeks after the first before fully fledged inoculation can be determined.

It therefore looks like the country is well off its population immunity targets at this stage of the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout.

The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:

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 Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash]