SA has 57,471 active cases of Covid-19

South Africa has 57,471 active cases of Covid-19, from a total of 3.931,534 confirmed cases and 3.773,111 recoveries.

The country has identified 1,662 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. This increase represents an 13.7% positivity rate, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

25 081 137 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors. The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (39%) followed by Western Cape (22%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 13%; Free State accounted for 6%; Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 5% respectively; Eastern Cape and Northern Cape each accounted for 4% respectively; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s cases.

The NICD has reported 19 deaths, and of these, 8 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,952 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.”

There has been an increase of 83 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for under-fives effective with three doses

The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine is safe and effective when given as three doses to children under five years, the companies said Monday, welcome news for parents of the only age group not yet eligible for immunization in most countries.

The announcement comes as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning highly-anticipated meetings in the coming weeks to weigh authorization. 

In a clinical trial, Pfizer-BioNTech evaluated three doses, given at three micrograms, and found the vaccine evoked a strong immune response in children aged from six months through four years.

Side effects were similar in the vaccine and placebo groups.

Vaccine efficacy was 80.3 percent, according to a preliminary estimate — though this was based on very low numbers and may change significantly by the time of the final estimate.

“We are pleased that our formulation for the youngest children, which we carefully selected to be one-tenth of the dose strength for adults, was well tolerated and produced a strong immune response,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in a statement.

“We look forward to soon completing our submissions to regulators globally with the hope of making this vaccine available to younger children as quickly as possible, subject to regulatory authorization,” he added.

Additional reporting by AFP