Today schools across the country will begin closing as the adjusted alert level 4 lockdown came into effect earlier in the week. This is being done in an effort to curb the rising amount of infections and deaths related to COVID-19 in South Africa during the current third wave.

Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health, it appears as if our work is cut out in terms of trying to limit the spread of the virus. This as 13 347 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections recorded to date to 1 954 466.

Another concerning metric is the newly recorded fatalities, with 226 reported. With the highly spreadable and more dangerous delta variant of COVID-19 being reported in a number of provinces, these numbers will only increase if the two-week long level 4 lockdown does not have the desired effect. We will only know the impact in the coming days, but for now the death toll sits at 60 264.

It is why vaccine rollout efforts need to be stepped up at this time. According to the latest figures accurate as of 17:00 on 29th June, 2 900 666 vaccines have been administered to date, but the vast majority of these are the first dose of Pfizer vaccine.

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 Mat Napo on Unsplash]