A woman receives a dose of Comirnaty vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech against Covid-19 on June 29, 2021 at an outdoor vaccination centre in Paris. Photo: AFP/Martin Bureau
As of Tuesday, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 1,954,466 with 13,347 new cases identified, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed, representing a 26.2% positivity rate.
A further 226 Covid-19-related deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll in South Africa to 60,264. There are currently 154,226 active cases.
During the course of the pandemic, 1,739,976 people have recovered, which translates to a recovery rate of 89.0%. To date, 2,900,666 vaccines have been administered in South Africa.
An increase of 711 hospital admissions have been reported in the past 24 hours. There are currently 8,080 patients admitted at private facilities and 4,479 patients at public facilities.
At the time of publishing, Gauteng accounts for the majority of new cases (8,925, or 67% of the daily total), followed by the Western Cape with 992 cases (7%) and KwaZulu-Natal with 947 cases (7%).
Limpopo reported 385 new cases, while Mpumalanga had 475 and North West 669. In the Free State, 338 residents contracted Covid-19, along with 504 in the Eastern Cape and 112 in the Northern Cape.
A lack of transport to vaccination sites, insufficient education on vaccines and vaccine hesitancy could be contributing to the low rate of over 60s receiving the jab, with less than 2 million vaccinated in the second phase, experts said.
Additional reporting by Rorisang Kgosana.
READ MORE HERE: Various reasons for low turnout of over 60s at Covid-19 vaccine sites
At the time of publishing, Covid-19 is affecting 220 countries and territories. The global caseload now exceeds 182 000 000, with the death toll at 3,953,846. Since the start of the pandemic, 167,176,719 patients have recovered.
The US is the worst affected with 619,980 deaths from 34,527,493. After the US, the hardest-hit countries are India with 398,484 deaths from 30,361,699 cases and Brazil with 516,119 deaths from 18,513,305 cases.
France reported 111,057 deaths from 5,772,844 cases while Russia recorded 134,545 deaths from 5,493,557 cases. South Africa is currently 19th on the list, preceded, in order, by Peru, Indonesia, Ukraine, Mexico, Poland, Iran, Germany, Spain, Colombia, Italy, Argentina, the UK, and Turkey. (World Meters Info)
In other news, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un replaced several senior officials after a “grave incident” in the country’s efforts to defend itself against the coronavirus, state media reported Wednesday.
Russia on Tuesday reported its highest daily Covid-19 death toll and Australia locked down major cities as the highly infectious Delta strain has caused mayhem around the world.
The WHO said it was supporting the five remaining countries yet to start their Covid-19 immunisation campaigns – Burundi, Eritrea, Haiti, North Korea and Tanzania – as the planet clocked up administering three billion vaccine doses on Tuesday. (AFP)
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