The latest numbers for COVID-19 in South Africa are concerning. This as a third wave of infections persist while the temperature continues to drop and the number of newly recorded fatalities rises.

According to the National Department of Health (NDoH), 297 new fatalities have been recorded in the past 24 hours and with Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize still on “special leave” to handle allegations of corruption, there is little in the form of updates from those in charge.

Should we record a similar number of deaths in the coming days, it will do little to counter reports that some provinces could be moved to a hard lockdown.

While we await word on that front, the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout is still moving slowly and with the latest numbers only accurate as of 23:59 on 21st June, it is unclear precisely how many citizens have been inoculated at this stage. Looking at the figures, 2 229 242 vaccines have been administered to date, with 1 749 474 of these being the first dose of Pfizer vaccine, requiring a second dose six weeks after the first before inoculation can be determined.

As for the number of new infections, 11 093 have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of cases to date to 1 843 572. The recovery rate has consequently dropped to 90.3 percent, with over 12.63 million tests having been conducted to date.

The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:

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 Mat Napo on Unsplash]