Last week saw Eskom announced stage 2 loadshedding every afternoon to late evening and this week looks to be no different. As such, it serves as an unwelcome distraction from COVID-19 in South Africa, while the drop in temperature exacerbates matters.

As such, these new factors will likely have an impact on the spread of the virus locally, which has in recent weeks been on the increase.

That said we have not seen the sort of numbers associated with a fully fledged wave of infections, but that situation could change at any moment.

For now, the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) confirms that 4 344 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours. This sees the total number of infections recorded to date climb to 3 891 793.

The department also notes that two fatalities have been recorded too, as the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa has now reached 100 755.

As for the vaccine rollout, the past 24 hours has only seen 3 638 jabs administered, with the majority of these being booster shots. As such, there still isn’t a strong enough turnout for people to be fully vaccinated.

As of 17:00 on 15th May 2022, a total of 35 441 399 vaccines have been administered across the country, with an estimated 19 633 795 people fully vaccinated at this stage.

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 Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash]