This past weekend many people aged between 18 and 34 went to vaccination sites across the country, following Cabinet’s decision to open up the rollout programme to anyone over the age of 18. Sites were extremely busy and government hopes that this continues over the coming weeks as we try to bring the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa under control.
For now, it remains to be seen how quickly we can reach population immunity.
In the interim, the numbers related to COVID-19 in South Africa still make for tough reading, with the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) confirming that 10 748 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours. This pushes the total number of cases recorded to date to 2 690 973, with over 16 million tests conducted and the recover rate now sitting at 90.8 percent.
As for the other key figures, 170 new fatalities were recorded, as the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa rises to 79 421.
Shifting to the vaccine rollout, the past 24 hours has seen 23 910 vaccines administered, with the low figure attributed to it being a Sunday. Hopefully though, rollouts on weekends pick up, with 10 527 363 vaccines administered across the country as of 17:00 on 22nd August. The estimated number of people inoculated at this stage is now 4 832 763.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 466 463 | 413 810 | 35 178 | 17 475 |
| Eastern Cape | 254 935 | 226 787 | 14 742 | 13 406 |
| Northern Cape | 76 726 | 67 405 | 7 401 | 1 920 |
| Free State | 142 120 | 120 981 | 15 001 | 6 138 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 454 150 | 386 408 | 54 711 | 13 031 |
| North West | 139 850 | 117 553 | 18 826 | 3 471 |
| Mpumalanga | 140258 | 132690 | 5 759 | 1 809 |
| Gauteng | 898 181 | 867 478 | 12 290 | 18 413 |
| Limpopo | 118 290 | 111 297 | 3 235 | 3 758 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 2 690 973 | 2 444 409 | 167 143 | 79 421 |
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]
