A health worker prepares a syringe of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine outside the Wonderpark Shopping Centre, in Pretoria, on December 8, 2021. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Sunday confirmed that new Covid-19 cases are down slightly, as well as deaths.
According to the latest data, 15,465 new cases were identified, representing a positivity rate of 30.7%.
Three Covid-related deaths were reported, a significant improvement from Saturday’s figure of 48 deaths.
This brings South Africa’s Covid death toll to 90,348.
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KwaZulu-Natal is still leading the pack in terms of new infections, representing 27% of cases in the country. Gauteng is at 23%, followed by the Western Cape, at 18%.
The lowest number of new cases is currently in the Northern Cape, at 337, which makes up just 2% of Sunday’s new case load.
87 people have been admitted to hospital over the past 24 hours, an increase noted by the NICD.
There are currently 7,951 patients admitted in hospital for Covid-19.
European Union members are set to receive an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first three months of 2022 to fight the fast-spreading Omicron variant, the European Commission said on Sunday.
Member states will get an additional five million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab in January, five million in February and 10 million in March, and will receive 650 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech jabs in total in 2022.
Travel bans continue across the globe, with Israel on Sunday saying it may ban citizens from travelling to and from the US.
The country’s health ministry also added several European countries to its Covid “red list”, aimed at containing the Omicron variant’s spread.
Britain and Denmark were already on the red list, as was most of Africa.
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The Netherlands will go into “lockdown” over the Christmas period to try to stop a surge of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announces.
London mayor Sadiq Khan declares a “major incident” in the British capital owing to the spread of the Omicron variant, with a record 26,418 cases reported in the last 24 hours -– the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
The coronavirus has killed at least 5,345,524 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
The US has suffered the most Covid-related deaths with 806,652, followed by Brazil with 617,601, India with 477,158 and Mexico with 297,568.
Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.
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Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by AFP
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