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
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced that 6,762 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in South Africa in the past 24 hours.
This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.540,891. This increase represents a 15.5% positivity rate.
The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape (28%), followed by Gauteng (22%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 18%; Eastern Cape accounted for 11%; Limpopo accounted for 5%; Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West each accounted for 4% respectively of today’s new cases.
As per the National Department of Health, a further 181 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 92,830 to date.
21.654,544 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
There has been an increase of 316 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
The Department of Health on Wednesday urged all people who had experienced any adverse events after receiving their Covid-19 vaccine to immediately report to their nearest health facility or vaccination site.
The department said it had noted with concern a video clip circulating on social media platforms, depicting a male patient suffering from what looks like throat cancer. The man claimed that his diagnosis was the result of a Covid-19 vaccine.
The department’s spokesperson Foster Mohale discouraged members of the public from using other people’s health conditions and life experiences to push their personal theories to justify their opposition to Covid-19 jabs.
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He called on people who had experienced adverse effects after getting a vaccine to report their symptoms, adding that rare vaccine adverse events can be managed successfully if they are identified early, including those that need medical attention or hospitalisation.
Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe
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