This week much of the world’s focus is on the border between Ukraine and Russia, growing tensions and the precipice of war. Closer to home, however, we have COVID-19 in South Africa to worry about.

To that end we are still to exit the effects of the fourth wave of infections and the Omicron variant of the virus, as neither infections nor fatalities shows signs of fully dying down.

The latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) shows that 3 118 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, in keeping with the trend of numbers rising as the week progresses.

The result sees the total number of infections recorded to date climbs to 3 665 149.

The department also notes that 110 fatalities have been reported too, as the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa now sits at 98 978.

As for other key figures in the report, the recovery rate has increased slightly to 96.4 percent, while more than 22.96 million tests have been conducted to date.

Shifting to the vaccine rollout and yesterday several changes as regards waiting times between jabs and booster shots came into effect, with it resulting in a slight uptick in the turnout to vaccination sites across the country.

To that end, 88 698 vaccines have been administered over the past 24 hours. As of 17:00 on 23rd February 2022, a total of 31 218 528 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 Martin Sanchez on Unsplash]