People queue in line for the Covid-19 vaccination at Universitas Hospital on June 24, 2021 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It is reported that the COVID-19 vaccination of teachers and support staff started on June 23rd and will end on July 08 and all school staff will qualify for the jabs. (Photo by Gallo Images/ Volksblad/Mlungisi Louw)
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has reported 13,751 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa.
The institute, responsible for the monitoring and surveillance of Covid-19, said this now brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2. 422, 151, representing a 24.6% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 523 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 71 431 to date,” the institute said in a statement.
14. 750,901 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as the government looks for innovative ways to get more citizens vaccinated.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the government was looking at more ways of enhancing vaccination such as the establishment of drive-thru vaccinations for motorists.
“We are bringing in quite a lot of innovation in the vaccination process and the [health] minister was telling me that one of the innovations is drive-thru vaccinations where people just come, stay in their cars and they are vaccinated, the screening happens and then they move on.
“This is a new innovation and I think it must be one of the few first in the world.”
The president also praised the efforts of the private sector in helping government with its vaccination campaign before he travelled to Midrand, Johannesburg, to inspect a private-public partnership centre.
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“After this, we are going to a private-public vaccination centre which is essentially also being run by the private sector in partnership with us.
“The partnership is helping us a great deal to also up the number. We are pulling all stops [and] we want to have reached a very good number of people who are vaccinated by the end of the year,” Ramaphosa said.
Within the next two to three months, government is expecting the arrival of around 31 million additional doses from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. The US government has also donated 5.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to South Africa.
Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe
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