Yesterday the National Department of Health (NDoH) began the second part of the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout. It marks a significant step in a vaccine rollout that has stuttered and stumbled to date, with the department far off from its initial projections as far as inoculation targets are concerned in the fight against COVID-19 in South Africa.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize also made a bold prediction with regard to phase two, with the NDoH hoping to vaccinate five million elderly South Africans by the end of June. Given that the latest report from the department shows that 478 733 vaccines have been administered to date to frontline healthcare workers, it is a rather optimistic claim from the minister.
Given the current challenges that loadshedding and the colder months present, it remains to be seen how effectively the second phase will be handled.
Looking at the rest of the latest report, 1 757 new cases have been reported over the past 24 hours. This pushes the total number of cases recorded to date to 1 615 485, with more than 11.13 million tests having been conducted locally so far. The NDoH also confirms that 1 526 638, translating to a recovery rate of 94.5 percent.
Unfortunately 50 new fatalities have been recorded over the past 24 hours as well. The Free State accounts for the most of the new daily figure at 30, with the province seemingly in the midst of a third wave of infections currently. The result sees the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa rise to 55 260.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 289 870 | 275 600 | 1 996 | 11 711 |
Eastern Cape | 196 610 | 184 660 | 210 | 11 619 |
Northern Cape | 44 943 | 37 797 | 3 554 | 987 |
Free State | 94 960 | 85 101 | 2 398 | 4 048 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 338 090 | 322 907 | 5 041 | 10 459 |
North West | 71 195 | 64 489 | 2 881 | 1 798 |
Mpumalanga | 80 034 | 77 557 | 991 | 1 421 |
Gauteng | 435 321 | 416 761 | 3 231 | 10 881 |
Limpopo | 64 462 | 61 766 | 295 | 2 336 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 615 485 | 1 526 638 | 20 597 | 55 260 |
As always, in order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:
- Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
- COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
- World Health Organisation
- SA Coronavirus website
- SA Government
- SA Presidency
[Image – Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash]