Today anyone over 18 years old is eligible to register to receive vaccines in the country. Cabinet confirmed this decision yesterday, as the move was made to ramp up vaccination efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa.
Up until now, the uptake in vaccines was been relatively low and a cause for concern for government, especially as many were complaining about the lack of vaccine availability in the country at the beginning of the year.
In the months that followed, however, turnout has been poor, sparking fears that the country will be ill prepared when a fourth wave is predicted to hit SA come December.
Looking at the latest figures with regards to the rollout, the past 24 hours has 191 806 vaccines administered, so we’re hoping that it picks up in the coming days and weeks now that more people can register.
As of 17:00 on 19th August, 10 167 749 vaccines have been administered in total, with an estimated 4 629 371 people inoculated to date. As such, there is still plenty of work to be done before population immunity can be achieved.
As for the other key figures related to COVID-19 in South Africa, the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), confirms 13 672 new cases in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections to date to 2 652 652.
317 new fatalities have also been reported in the past 24 hours, as the death toll rises to 78 694 and the recovery rate drops to 90.9 percent.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 457 137 | 405 097 | 34 806 | 17 234 |
| Eastern Cape | 249 554 | 224 284 | 11 945 | 13 325 |
| Northern Cape | 75 199 | 66 314 | 6 999 | 1 886 |
| Free State | 139 918 | 119 736 | 14 081 | 6 101 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 442 698 | 376 131 | 53 761 | 12 806 |
| North West | 138 273 | 117 553 | 17 249 | 3 471 |
| Mpumalanga | 138 111 | 130 376 | 5 929 | 1 806 |
| Gauteng | 894 328 | 862 153 | 13 868 | 18 307 |
| Limpopo | 117 434 | 110 109 | 3 567 | 3 758 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 2 652 652 | 2 411 753 | 162 205 | 78 694 |
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:
- 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 – CC BY-ND 2.0 GovernmentZA on Flickr]
