Covid-19 update: SA records 573 deaths in 24 hours

As of Wednesday, South Africa recorded a total of 75, 774 deaths since the pandemic hit our shores, with 573 Covid-19 related deaths recorded since the last report.

This was revealed by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division responsible for the surveillance of Covid-19.

The institute reported 7,502 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in the country.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,554,240.

“This increase represents an 18.9% positivity rate,” reported the institute.

It announced that a total of 15,363,298 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

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“The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (26%), followed by Western Cape (23%). Gauteng Province accounted for 17%; Eastern Cape accounted for 13%; Free State accounted for 6%; Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 5% respectively; Limpopo Province accounted for 3% and Northern Cape accounted for 2% of today’s new cases,” reads the alert.

The institute also reported an increase of 459 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Vaccine distribution issues irk elderly Gqeberha residents

About 100 people, many elderly, were left frustrated on Friday when health officials failed to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to the Govan Mbeki Community Hall in Gqeberha.

People GroundUp spoke to said there had been a shortage of vaccines at the site the whole week.

They waited for vaccines from 7am, and not a single health official had arrived. Volunteers at the site phoned health officials to find out what was happening. They were promised the vaccines would be delivered by 1pm.

At 12:30pm they were told to go home.

Asked to explain what went wrong, Mahlubandile Qwase, the acting head of the provincial health department, blamed the problem on the global vaccine supply.

“This has had a domino effect and impact on the country as well as the province’s supply for both the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The situation therefore was not unique to Nelson Mandela Bay or even the province,” he said.

But this doesn’t make sense according to Professor Nicoli Nattrass of the University of Cape Town who has been tracking the country’s vaccine supply.

“There are 1.9 million Pfizer shots that have long been available in the system, and another 5.5 million doses that should also be available as they have been in the country a week.

“There are also about 2 million Johnson & Johnson doses available. From South Africa’s perspective, the problem is not global vaccine supply; it’s distribution of vaccines to sites where they’re needed.”

Nomathemba Maputle, who is 71, said: “The health officials have no respect for us. On Thursday it was my date to get a second dose. But I was turned away because it was already full.

“I was told to come back today at 8am and stand in the queue. I was not even booked for today.”

“I arrived here at 7:30am and we have been waiting here since.”

Nompumelelo Nontshaba, who is 80, told a similar story: “On Thursday it was my date and I arrived at 10am. But I could not get my second dose because it was full. I spent R20 a day on taxi fare.”

“For the whole week many of us could not get our vaccines on our dates. Today no one received it.”

The Department says that the vaccine shortage has been resolved.

Qwase said: “The stock availability has already begun to show an upward trajectory since the beginning of August and the country has turned the corner.

“Vaccine supply constraints will soon be a thing of the past.”

Additional reporting by Mkhuseli Sizani, GroundUp