Yesterday the National Department of Health (NDoH) announced a handful of significant changes to its vaccination programme for COVID-19 in South Africa.

This in an effort to get more people to sites across the country, as well as receive booster vaccines with less wait times, as the country still tries to reach population immunity in order to stave off the impact of future waves of infection.

Whether the strategy yields dividends remains to be seen, but the aforementioned changes are only taking effect as of 23rd February, so we will only know in the coming week if it works as desired.

While we await the outcome of that, the latest report from the NDoH shows that 1 151 cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, which is a relatively low figure. The total number of infections recorded to date now sits at 3 659 698.

Unfortunately though, the number of fatalities has almost tripled since the previous day’s report with 137 fatalities recorded in the past 24 hours. The death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa has increased to 98 804 as a result.

Shifting back to the vaccine rollout and the past 24 hours has only seen 68 952 jabs have been administered, illustrating the need to increase turnout at sites. As of 17:00 on 21st February 2022, a total of 31 039 221 vaccines have been administered across SA.

The full outlook for COVID-19 in South Africa follows on below:

• 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 visuals on Unsplash]