Healthcare workers administer the first batch of Johnson and Johnson vaccines at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, 17 February 2021, as health workers receive the first jabs of the vaccine in the fight against the coronvirus pandemic. Picture: Michel Bega
As of Friday, 19 February 2021, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases is 1,500,677 with 1,911 new cases identified, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has confirmed.
151 more Covid-19 related deaths were reported, with 12 from Eastern Cape, 21 from Free State, 43 from Gauteng, 40 from Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), 1 from Limpopo, 8 from Mpumalanga and 26 from Western Cape.
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This brings the total number of Covid-19 related deaths to 48,859.
Recoveries now stand at 1,403,214 representing a recovery rate of 93,7%.
A total of 8,807,299 tests have been completed with 34,556 new tests conducted since the last report.
Meanwhile, the total number of vaccines that have been administered stands at 6,524.
A study on healthcare workers at the largest hospital in Israel shows the first dose of the Pfizer jab is 85 percent effective against infection between two and four weeks after being administered.
The White House announces Joe Biden will pledge $4 billion in US aid to the Covax global vaccination program while the European Union (EU) says it will double its funding for the scheme to 1 billion euros.
Brazil, which has the second-highest coronavirus death toll, passes the 10-million mark for reported infections with more than 51,900 new infections in 24 hours, according to official data.
The prestigious journal Science urges a global effort to use high performance supercomputers to identify new key viral proteins for a universal coronavirus vaccine that would remain effective against other members of the same virus family.
Beijing gifts Algeria 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines, boosting supplies in the North African nation.
Israel, which suspended international flights on January 24 before also closing the border crossings with Jordan and Egypt, extends airport and land border closures for 14 more days.
French President Emmanuel Macron proposes that rich Western countries transfer 3-5 percent of their stock of shots to Africa.
The Dutch government asks appeals judges to overturn a court order scrapping a curfew, comparing the pandemic to waters overwhelming the low-lying country’s famed dykes.
The virus has caused at least 2,441,926 deaths around the world since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 493,119 deaths, followed by Brazil with 243,457, Mexico with 178,108, India with 156,111 and Britain with 119,387.
The pandemic has continued its sharp slowdown with the number of new cases halved since early January, according to a specialised AFP database.
Basketball’s biggest names will be forced to play a made-for-TV All-Star Game in Atlanta, Georgia on March 7 despite protests from stars like LeBron James who mourn the loss of the NBA season’s only significant break after a shortened off-season.
French automaker Renault books a record loss in 2020 of 8.05 billion euros ($9.7 billion) last year.
Three Asian badminton tournaments are delayed indefinitely while the Malaysia Open and the Singapore Open are rescheduled and the Olympic qualifying period for the Tokyo Games will now close on June 15.
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