South Africa on Tuesday crossed the eight million mark for adults who are fully vaccinated.
According to the Department of Health, the country administered 178 685 COVID-19 jabs in the past 24 hours, of which 100 853 people were fully jabbed.
This brings the total number of administered doses to 16 358 076, while those who have received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson or the second shot of the Pfizer vaccine stands at 8 108 520.
The latest data shows that there are now 11 848 356 citizens who have been vaccinated out of the 39 798 201 individuals that government is targeting before the end of December.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 cases continue to drop, with 2 197 new infections identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 886 331.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the bulk of the new cases were reported in KwaZulu-Natal after 594 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus.
The province is followed by 366 cases in the Western Cape, 329 in Eastern Cape, 297 in the Free State and 256 in Gauteng.
The NICD said the increase represents a 6.1% positivity rate.
In addition, 160 patients succumbed to the disease, pushing the death toll to 86 376 to date.
“There has been an increase of 175 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said, adding that the seven-day moving average daily number of new cases has dwindled.
The information is based on the 17 410 204 tests conducted in both public and private sectors.
Globally, as of 21 September 2021, there have been 228 807 631 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 697 099 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Global view
According to the WHO, the numbers of weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to decline this week, with over 3.6 million infections and under 60 000 deaths reported between 13 and 19 September.
The African and the European regions reported numbers of cases similar to those of the previous week, while other regions recorded decreases, with a substantial drop in the Eastern Mediterranean (22%) and South-East Asia regions (16%).
In terms of COVID-19 mortality, the WHO said nearly 60 000 deaths were logged in the past week, a 7% decrease as compared to the previous week.
The African, Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asian regions reported decreases in weekly mortality over the past week.
Meanwhile, the South-East Asia region logged the largest percentage decrease (27%) compared to the Western Pacific region, which registered a 7% increase.
The highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States (1 017 644 new cases, similar to last week), India (211 242 new cases, 15% decrease), the United Kingdom (203 077 new cases, 21% decrease), Turkey (183 962 new cases, 16% increase), and the Philippines (141 522 new cases, similar to last week).
Source: South African Government News Agency