Healthcare workers administer the first batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccines at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto on 17 February 2021, as health workers receive the first jabs of the vaccine in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: Michel Bega
4,227 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.
This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.935,761. This increase represents an 15.7% positivity rate.
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (31%) followed by Western Cape (22%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 16%; Eastern Cape accounted for 11%; Free State accounted for 6%; Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West each accounted for 4% respectively; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s cases.
The country has also recorded 50 deaths, and of these, 14 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 101,002 to date.
“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of Covid-19 mortality cases reported,” said the NICD.
25.108,084 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
There has been an increase of 139 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
The Gauteng Department of Health has reached its target of vaccinating more than 10 million people in the province against Covid-19.
Health MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi revealed this on Tuesday during the tabling of her department’s budget vote for the 2022/23 financial year in the provincial legislature.
Gauteng is leading the other provinces in the country in terms of the number of jabs administered at 10,005,136, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with more than five million vaccinations. Nationally, nearly 50% of the population has been vaccinated.
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Despite the milestone reached by the province, Mokgethi said her department planned to ramp up its vaccination programme amid fears of a fifth wave of infections this winter.
She said a total of R1.5 billion was allocated for the fight against the pandemic.
“I must hasten to say that there are still more people who need to get the jab in order to protect themselves and those around them.
“Hence, we want to once again remind everyone that Covid-19 is still in our midst and that vaccination together with observing of safety measures remains the best form of protection as we accelerate efforts to restore livelihoods,” Mokgethi said.
Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe
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