Last night President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation regarding COVID-19 in South Africa, with the omicron variant of the virus recently identified and resulting in a spike in cases locally, particularly in Gauteng.
During the address, the president confirmed that country would remain at alert level 1 lockdown, with an assessment on the status set to happen a week from now.
As such, should the number of cases and fatalities worsen or medical researchers discover that vaccines are not effective against the new variant, a higher level of lockdown is expected.
For now though, things in the country remain as they have been for the past few months.
During his address, Ramaphosa also noted the importance of the vaccine rollout, citing it as the best defence against a fourth wave of infections, which is predicted to happen in early-December.
The final crucial bit of news from the address is the formation of a task team assigned to look at the enforcing of mandatory vaccinations in certain scenarios, such as indoor public gatherings. No official status has been mentioned yet, but it is an area that government is actively looking at.
As for the latest numbers regarding COVID-19 in South Africa, the National Department of Health (NDoH) confirms that 2 858 cases have been recorded over the pat 24 hours, with the total number of infections to date rising to 2 961 406.
The NDoH also notes that six fatalities have been reported too, as the death toll related to the virus climbs to 89 797.
Looking at the vaccine rollout, as of 17:00 on 28th November a total of 25 288 417 vaccines have been administered, with an estimated 14 296 371 people fully vaccinated at this stage.
The full outlook for COVID-19 in South Africa follows on below:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 518 050 | 496 452 | 1 395 | 20 203 |
| Eastern Cape | 293 164 | 277 773 | 191 | 15 200 |
| Northern Cape | 93 316 | 90 346 | 585 | 2 385 |
| Free State | 165 506 | 157 079 | 1 342 | 7 085 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 518 269 | 498 771 | 4 711 | 14 787 |
| North West | 155 035 | 148 241 | 2 440 | 4 354 |
| Mpumalanga | 153 783 | 151 208 | 564 | 2 011 |
| Gauteng | 941 810 | 909 822 | 12 312 | 19 676 |
| Limpopo | 123 473 | 118 079 | 1 298 | 4 096 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 2 962 406 | 2 847 771 | 24 838 | 89 797 |
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 – Photo by Mustafa Omar on Unsplash]
