The number of South Africans who have received at least one vaccine dose is 12 494 219 or 31.39% of the eligible adult population government is targeting.

Meanwhile, according to the Department of Health, 8 719 336 million have been fully vaccinated.

In addition, the latest data show that the country administered 17 349 100 vaccines as of Wednesday, of which 156 818 were distributed in the last 24 hours.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the country recorded 2 106 infections and 108 deaths.

This means that South Africa’s total number of cases since the outbreak now stands at 2 900 994 and 87 525 deaths.

Hospitalisations due to the virus rose to 6 713 after 143 people were admitted since the last reporting cycle.

Globally, as of 29 September 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there have been 232 636 622 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 4 762 089 deaths and 6 136 962 861 administered vaccine doses.

Global view

According to the WHO’s COVID-19 weekly epidemiological update, the number of weekly infections and deaths continued to decline.

The WHO said over 3.3 million new cases and over 55 000 new deaths were reported between 20 and 26 September 2021, a decline of 10% as compared to the previous week for both infections and fatalities.

“The cumulative number of confirmed cases reported globally is now over 231 million and the cumulative number of deaths is more than 4.7 million.”

The agency said the number of new weekly fatalities showed a large decline for all regions except for the European region, which reported a similar number of weekly deaths compared to the previous week, while Africa logged a slight peak of 5%.

Meanwhile, the largest decline in weekly deaths was reported from the Western Pacific region, with a 24% drop as compared to the previous week.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States (765 827 new cases, 31% decrease), Brazil (247 397 new cases, 135% increase due to changes in reporting), the United Kingdom (230 494 new cases, 14% increase), India (204 582 new cases, similar to the previous week), and Turkey (192 778 new cases, similar to the previous week).

Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 193 countries, while 142 countries have detected cases of the Beta variant, and 96 countries have the Gamma variant.

In addition, the Delta variant has spread to 187 countries and exists in all six WHO regions as of 28 September.

Source: South African Government News Agency