South Africa’s vaccination rollout programme is accelerating, with over seven million vaccine doses administered to date.

According to the Department of Health, the country has now distributed 7 065 432 COVID-19 jabs, of which 194 891 people received their shot on Wednesday.

The recent statistics show that the total cumulative number of the administered Johnson & Johnson shots now stands at 1 386 580 and 5 678 852 for the Pfizer jab.

Meanwhile, South Africa detected 17 351 new COVID-19 cases from the 71 061 tests that were performed on Wednesday.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this means the country now has a total of 2 408 525 laboratory-confirmed cases, representing a 24.4% positivity rate.

The hardest-hit provinces include Gauteng which recorded 5 204 new infections, followed by 4 667 in the Western Cape and 1 975 in the KwaZulu-Natal.

In addition, a further 520 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, pushing the tally to 70 908 to date.

“There has been an increase of 726 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said.

According to the latest data, the country now has 150 629 active cases, while the recovery rate is standing at 90.8% after 2 186 988 people beat the virus.

According to the World Health Organisation, as of 28 July, there were 195 266 156 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 4 180 161 deaths, and 3 829 935 772 administered vaccine doses.

Source: South African Government News Agency