More than 28-million vaccines have been administered in South Africa.
Vaccines and boosters
According to the Department of Health, 28 032 640 vaccines have been administered and of those, 52 318 were administered on Monday, January 3.
In other news, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended that teenagers should get boosted against Covid-19, at five months or more after their primary vaccination. This comes after both the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) booster vaccines were approved for use by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) at the end of December.
The regulator approved the J&J booster shot to be taken at least two months after the initial dose, for those over the age of 18. Pfizer booster vaccinations will be made available to anyone who received their last dose at least six months since the second primary dose.
The fourth wave
The Western Cape has officially passed the peak of its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections. For the province to exit the fourth wave, it will need to record less than 600 new infections per day, said the Western Cape Department of Health’s Dr Keith Cloete. So far, Gauteng is the only province to have exited the fourth wave.
In a statement from The Presidency on December 30, it was said that all indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level.
Travel news
The good news for the country is the lifting of travel bans by France and Seychelles on January 6, but only to vaccinated visitors. This follows Germany removing South Africa from the ‘red list’ on December 3.
Want to take a trip to France? Upon boarding, all travellers aged 12 and over, regardless of their vaccination status, must present a negative result of a PCR or antigen test taken less than 48 hours before the flight.
Want an island adventure? For Seychelles, every traveller over the age of two is required to present a negative Covid-19 PCR test result obtained within 72 hours of the departure. This negative test result and other health documents will be required to complete a Health Travel Authorisation form.
Stats
According to the National Institute For Communicable Diseases Of South Africa (NICD), as of January 6, a total of 3 504 554 positive cases had been recorded in South Africa since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the preceding 24 hours, 9 860 new cases and 45 new deaths were reported. Active cases were 151 800.
The cumulative death toll was 92 112 while recoveries stood at 3 260 642. The total number of vaccines administered was 28 164 339.
Health Department records Covid-19 deaths backlog
The Department of Health said on December 6 in a press statement that they had recorded over 500 Covid-19 deaths due to going audit exercise conducted by provinces across the country to address a backlog of Covid-19 mortality and new cases.
Out of 551 deaths recorded on December 6, only 45 have occurred in the past 48 hours. The identification of these historic deaths is part of the process to align the provincial death line list with excess deaths.
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