7 million vaccines administered in Gauteng

While the department of health is making final efforts to get as many people vaccinated ahead of the festive season, Gauteng has announced that it has administered a total of 7.105,099 vaccines as of Friday, 03 December.

The provincial department issued a breakdown of confirmed cases and district breakdown of vaccinations administered.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Gauteng as of 02 December 2021 sits at 961,300 with 911,620 recoveries and 19,701 deaths.

“A total number of 1,351 people are currently hospitalised in the public (697) and private (654) facilities,” reads the statement.

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“As at 02 December 2021, a total number of individuals vaccinated is 4.545,775 and individuals fully vaccinated sits at 3. 780,500.

“All persons 12 years and older are encouraged to visit their nearest vaccination site to receive the vaccine. It is thought getting 70% or more of the adult population vaccinated that we can minimise the impact of the fourth wave.”

The national department of health will once again kick off its Vooma Vaccination drive this weekend, and it has called on South Africans to get their vaccine ahead of the December festive season break.

GP on the cusp of fourth wave

Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Thursday warned that the province was on the cusp of the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.

In terms of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases, Gauteng is the most severely affected province, followed by the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

On Thursday, South Africa has now breached the 10,000 mark for daily infections, after 11,535 new cases were identified on Thursday.

Of those, 72% new cases were recorded in Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape with 6% and KwaZulu-Natal with 5%, which presents an overall positivity rate of 22.4%.

Makhura said the sharp increase in new daily Covid-19 cases recorded in Gauteng was due to the new Omicron variant. The variant initially started making waves in the Tshwane district and has now been detected in all five districts of the province.

“Our province is at the cusp of the fourth wave in a sense that with the new variant, we are the principal focus of this variant… as we see the numbers every day, we are very concerned about the reports coming from our clinical teams,” Makhura said.