South Africa administered 265 484 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Thursday, pushing the total number of vaccines that have been given so far to 11 648 851.

In addition, the Health Department said 144 068 people were fully vaccinated in the last 24 hours. Of these, 58 850 received the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine and 85 218 got the Pfizer shot.

According to the latest statistics, there are now 8 841 087 people who have been inoculated out of the 39 798 201 total adult population that government is targeting.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has recorded 12 771 new COVID-19 cases, which brings the tally to 2 734 973 since the outbreak.

“This increase represents a 19.3% positivity rate,” the NICD explained, noting that the additional infections are higher than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days.

According to the institution, KwaZulu-Natal remains the hardest-hit province, as it continues to log the highest number of new daily COVID-19 infections, with 3 610 reported in the last 24 hours.

The province is followed by the Western Cape, which accounted for 3 038 additional infections, 1 657 in the Eastern Cape, and 1 149 in Gauteng.

In addition, the death toll now stands at 80 826 after 357 patients lost the battle with Coronavirus.

The NICD also reported that there are now 13 646 hospitalised patients with COVID-19, of which 495 were admitted in the past 24 hours.

The public health institution said there are 66 116 people who were tested for Coronavirus.

As of 26 August 2021, there have been 213 752 662 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 459 381 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.

Source: South African Government News Agency