This week, people across the country will be anxiously awaiting news regarding COVID-19 in South Africa.

This as we remain at level 1 lockdown and will need to hear from the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) on the omicron variant of the virus and whether stricter regulations will be required to combat a fourth wave of infections.

For now there has been no movement on that front, with the same going for government’s plans to look into mandatory vaccinations for specific scenarios.

Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), the numbers have not intensified from last week. That said, it is only the beginning of the week, so we will need to see how the coming days pan out.

The past 24 hours has seen 2 273 cases recorded locally, with the total number of infections recorded to date now sitting at 2 963 679. Added to this is 25 new fatalities, with the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa climbing to 89 822.

The recovery rate has dipped since last week and is now 96.1 percent, with 2 849 439 recoveries recorded and more than 19.43 million tests have been conducted so far.

As for the vaccine rollout, which remains government’s key priority at the moment, the past 24 hours has seen 166 074 vaccines administered. As of 17:00 on 29th November, a total of 25 448 767 jabs administered, with an estimated 14 384 276 people fully vaccinated at this stage.

The full outlook for COVID-19 in South Africa follows on below:

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:

• 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 Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash]