South Africa has so far administered 6 854 667 vaccine doses of which 225 808 were distributed on Tuesday.

The latest data show that 60 001 people received the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) jab in the last 24 hours, while 165 807 received the Pfizer vaccine.

According to the Department of Health, the total cumulative number of the administered J&J shots now stands at 1 306 261 and 5 548 406 for Pfizer.

Meanwhile, South Africa recorded 36 721 COVID-19 tests of which 7 773 were positive.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 391 223.

Gauteng remains the hardest-hit province with 2 324 new infections detected in the last 24 hours, followed by 1 580 in the Western Cape and 1 246 in KwaZulu-Natal.

Meanwhile, the country lost 370 people to COVID-19, meaning the country’s death toll has risen to 70 388 deaths to date.

In addition, hospital admissions increased by 650 in the past 24 hours, while 140 341 people are currently infected in South Africa.

The information is based on the 14 623 917 tests that have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.

Global view

Globally, as of 27 July, there have been 194 608 040 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 170 155 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to the WHO’s weekly epidemiological update, the global number of new cases reported last week was over 3.8 million, an 8% increase compared to the previous week.

“This trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Americas and Western Pacific regions,” the organisation explained.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths reported this week increased sharply with over 69 000 deaths, a 21% peak compared to the previous week.

The greatest number of new fatalities were reported from the Americas and South-East Asia regions, the WHO added.

According to the latest data, the cumulative number of cases reported globally is now nearly 194 million, while the deaths exceed four million.

“If these trends continue, the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next two weeks.”

Over the past week, the WHO said the highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States (500 332 new cases, 131% increase), Brazil (324 334 new cases, 13% increase), Indonesia (289 029 new cases, 17% decrease), the United Kingdom (282 920 new cases, 5% decrease), and India (265 836 new cases, similar to the previous week).

Meanwhile, globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 182 countries, while 131 countries have cases of the Beta variant, 81 have the Gamma variant and 132 have detected the Delta variant.

Source: South African Government News Agency