The COVID-19 second wave is showing signs of slowing down in South Africa, with 3 754 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n
A reported 261 people succumbed to the respiratory disease, official data showed on Thursday. <\/p>\n
Of the recent deaths, 56 were reported in KwaZulu-Natal, 53 in Gauteng, 44 in the Eastern Cape, 42 in the North West, 41 in the Western Cape, 12 in the Free State, 11 in Limpopo and two in the Northern Cape.<\/p>\n
The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the country now stands at 1 466 767, while the death toll has jumped to 45 605.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the healthcare workers who treated the deceased patients,\u201d said Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize.<\/p>\n
The worst-hit regions continue to be KwaZulu-Natal with 42 016 active cases, followed by the Western Cape with 12 631.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Gauteng has 9 115 patients who are currently infected, 8 771 in the Free State and 7 943 in the North West. <\/p>\n
In addition, 1 327 186 people have recovered from COVID-19 to date, representing a recovery rate of 90.5%.<\/p>\n
The data is based on the 8 400 319 tests conducted, 31 032 of which were done since the last report.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported 103 989 900 cases globally, including 2 260 259 deaths.<\/p>\n
Vaccination<\/strong><\/p>\n According to WHO, COVAX expects to start sending millions of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa this month.<\/p>\n The global initiative – led by the WHO, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) – aims to start shipping nearly 90 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the continent in February, in what will be Africa\u2019s largest mass vaccination campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cAfrica has watched other regions start COVID-19 vaccination campaigns from the sidelines for too long. This planned rollout is a critical first step to ensuring the continent gets equitable access to vaccines.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know no one will be safe until everyone is safe,\u201d said WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti.<\/p>\n COVAX notified countries through letters, which were sent on 30 January 2021.<\/p>\n According to WHO, the final shipments will be based on the production capacities of vaccine manufacturers and the readiness of countries amid surging demand for vaccines.<\/p>\n In addition, around 320 000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries \u2013 Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia.<\/p>\n This vaccine has received WHO Emergency Use Listing but requires countries to be able to store and distribute doses at minus 70 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n Moeti has urged African nations to ramp up readiness and finalise their national vaccine deployment plans.<\/p>\n \u201cRegulatory processes, cold chain systems and distribution plans need to be in place to ensure vaccines are safely expedited from ports of entry to delivery. We can\u2019t afford to waste a single dose,\u201d said Moeti. <\/p>\n The initial phase of 90 million doses will support countries to immunise 3% of the African population most in need of protection, including health workers and other vulnerable groups in the first half of 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cAs production capacity increases and more vaccines become available, the aim is to vaccinate at least 20% of Africans by providing up to 600 million doses by the end of 2021,\u201d said Moeti.<\/p>\n The African Union has secured 670 million vaccine doses for the continent, which will be distributed in 2021 and 2022 as countries secure adequate financing.<\/p>\n WHO said the African Export-Import Bank will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of countries. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The COVID-19 second wave is showing signs of slowing down in South Africa, with 3 754 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours. A reported 261 people succumbed to the respiratory disease, official data showed on Thursday. Of the recent deaths, 56 were reported in KwaZulu-Natal, 53 in Gauteng, 44 in the Eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-179576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}