SA administers over 225 000 new COVID-19 vaccines

South Africa has administered 225 558 COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, pushing the total to 14 367 151 doses that have been distributed in the country.

In addition, the Department of Health said 124 241 were fully vaccinated in the last 24 hours.

This means there are now 7 021 256 adults in the country who have been fully vaccinated, while over 10.5 million people have received a single dose of the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson shot.

Meanwhile, the current surge in COVID-19 infections continues to show signs of a sustained downward trend.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), there are 6 270 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 843 042.

The majority of new cases were logged in the Western Cape after 1 479 were confirmed to have contracted the virus.

The province is followed by 1 223 in KwaZulu-Natal, 1 117 in the Eastern Cape, 596 in Gauteng and 588 in Free State.

“This increase represents a 12.0% positivity rate,” the NICD said, adding that the seven-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased.

In addition, 175 COVID-19 related fatalities have been reported, pushing the death toll to 84 327 to date.

Meanwhile, the latest data also show that there were new 304 hospital admissions since the last reporting cycle.

Globally, as of 9 September 2021, there have been 222 406 582 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 592 934 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Global view

Globally, the WHO said the number of new cases reported this week remained similar to the previous week.

With over 4.4 million new cases recorded this week, the global incidence of COVID-19 cases has remained stable over the past month.

According to the WHO’s weekly epidemiological update, almost all regions reported either a decline or a similar trend in new cases, as compared to the previous week.

However, the region of the Americas reported a 19% increase.

In addition, the WHO indicated that the number of deaths also remained similar to the previous week, with just under 68 000 new fatalities reported.

The incidence of new fatalities declined in all regions, apart from the regions of the Americas and Europe, where deaths peaked by 17% and 20%, respectively.

“The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now just over 220 million and the cumulative number of deaths is over 4.5 million,” the organisation reported.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported in the United States (1 297 399 new cases, 38% increase), India (293 643 new cases, 8% increase), the United Kingdom (243 125 new cases, similar to the previous week), Iran (208 089 new cases, 18% decrease), and Brazil (152 154 new cases, 13% decrease).

Source: South African Government News Agency