South Africa has surpassed the 16 million mark for total administered COVID-19 doses since the start of the country’s vaccination rollout programme.

This comes after 154 199 jabs were distributed in the last 24 hours.

According to the Department of Health, there are now 7 997 795 citizens who have been fully vaccinated, of which 76 736 people either received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the second shot of the Pfizer jab on Monday.

The dashboard also shows that there are now 11 711 920 individuals who have been vaccinated, translating to 29.43% of the country’s adult population.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Monday reported 1 504 new COVID-19 cases and 42 deaths from the disease.

This brings the latest documented total to 2 884 134 infections and 86 216 fatalities.

“The current surge in COVID-19 infections seems to be showing signs of a sustained downward trend,” the public health institute said, adding that the increase represents a 7% positivity rate.

According to the provincial breakdown, the majority of new cases were logged in KwaZulu-Natal after 391 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus.

The province was followed by 338 cases in the Northern Cape, 217 in Free State, 174 in the Eastern Cape, 155 in the Western Cape, 113 in Gauteng, 59 in the North West, 43 in Mpumalanga and 14 Limpopo.

The data shows that 112 patients were admitted to hospital since the last reporting cycle, pushing the number to 8 474 people who are receiving treatment.

According to the World Health Organisation, as of 20 September 2021, there have been 228 394 572 global confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 690 186 deaths and 5 776 127 976 administered vaccine doses.

Source: South African Government News Agency