South Africa Administers Over 10 million COVID-19 Doses

South Africa has surpassed the 10 million mark of administering COVID-19 jabs, with over 4.6 million South Africans now fully vaccinated.

According to the Department of Health, the country distributed 191 806 COVID-19 shots on Thursday, taking the number of administered jabs to 10 167 749 since the start of the vaccination rollout programme.

In addition, 137 215 people were fully inoculated in the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 4 629 371, translating to 7 808 626 people who have received the shot.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said 13 672 new COVID-19 cases were detected yesterday, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed infections to 2 652 652.

The majority of the new cases were recorded in KwaZulu-Natal (3 911) followed by the Western Cape (3 707), Gauteng (1 579), and the Eastern Cape (1 436).

“This increase represents a 19.9% positivity rate,” the NICD explained, adding that the seven-day moving average daily number of cases has peaked.

Meanwhile, 317 more people lost their lives to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 78 694.

In addition, the public health institute said 536 more people were admitted to hospitals in the past 24 hours, meaning there are currently 13 940 patients in hospitals out of the 162 205 active cases.

The information is based on the 15 821 074 tests of which 68 540 were conducted since the last reporting cycle.

Globally, as of 19 August 2021, there have been 209 201 939 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 390 467 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation. – SAnews.gov.za