Johannesburg – The vaccination programme against Covid-19 in South Africa has just taken a turn for the better, after the cabinet has announced that persons aged between 18 years and 35 years can get vaccinated from 20 August 2021.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has emphasised the importance of Covid-19 vaccination, as South Africa looks towards the end of the third wave and mitigation of a fourth wave in the latter part of the year.
Cabinet said it had received a report from the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) indicating that over nine million vaccines have been administered in South Africa to date, with over seven million people partially vaccinated and over four million fully vaccinated.
“Cabinet welcomed the vaccination roll out plan to increase the uptake of vaccines, particularly in provinces that had shown a reduction in the uptake of vaccines. As part of increasing the vaccination roll-out programme, Cabinet approved the vaccination of persons aged between 18 and 35 years from 20 August 2021,” Cabinet said in a statement on Thursday.
Cabinet urged people to dispel unfounded and misleading conspiracy theories about the vaccines and choose life by vaccinating.
“Scientific evidence confirms that vaccinated people stand a better chance of surviving from COVID-19 than unvaccinated people. Cabinet encourages all unvaccinated people in South Africa to get vaccinated because vaccines protect us from getting seriously ill from COVID-19 and they save lives.”
Cabinet said the process to get vaccinated is easy.
“Simply visit your nearest vaccination site with your identity document to be registered and vaccinated. You can find your closest site from the more than 3 000 vaccination sites across the country here..”
Cabinet has further approved the keeping of the country under the Risk-Adjusted Alert Level 3 of the national lockdown, as advised by the Ministerial Advisory Committee.
“Vaccine supply and the number of vaccination sites has increased, and it is up to the public to ensure that they present for vaccination,” NICD Head of the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response, Dr Michelle Groome, said on Wednesday.
South Africa has to date administered 9 962 111 vaccines, with 194 882 being administered in the last 24 hours. A total of 152 158 Pfizer vaccines and 42 724 Johnson and Johnson vaccines were administered.
South Africa, meanwhile, recorded 14 728 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 638 981.
This increase represents a 22.1% positivity rate.
As per the National Department of Health, a further 384 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 78 377 to date.
“The total number of cases today (14 728) is higher than yesterday (10 685) and higher than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days (12 107),” the NICD said on Wednesday.
According to NICD Acting Executive Director, Prof Adrian Puren, nationally there is a decrease in the number of new daily cases and percent testing positive, however there are some differences in trends at a provincial level.
Gauteng, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga have sustained decreases in case numbers, while the other five provinces have either increasing or sustained number of new cases.
“The Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces still appear to be on the upward slope of the third wave, although the Western Cape is showing early signs of reaching the peak of their third wave, whereas the Free State and Northern Cape provinces continue to see a steady number of new cases,” Puren said.
According to NICD Acting Executive Director, Prof Adrian Puren, nationally there is a decrease in the number of new daily cases and percent testing positive, however there are some differences in trends at a provincial level.
Gauteng, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga have sustained decreases in case numbers, while the other five provinces have either increasing or sustained number of new cases.
“The Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces still appear to be on the upward slope of the third wave, although the Western Cape is showing early signs of reaching the peak of their third wave, whereas the Free State and Northern Cape provinces continue to see a steady number of new cases,” Puren said.
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