South Africa has hit the milestone of having administered more than 12 million COVID-19 vaccinations as of Sunday, as government works around the clock to inoculate the country’s adult population.

According to the Department of Health, the number of distributed vaccines stand at 12 021 608, of which 22 566 were administered in the last 24 hours.

This means there are now 9 099 396 eligible adults who have received their shot, while 5 654 557 have been fully inoculated.

“Together we can vaccinate more people. Thank you, South Africa,” the department said, urging more citizens to visit the vaccination centres.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has reported 7 740 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 764 931.

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal after 2 206 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus.

The province is followed by 1 670 in the Western Cape, 1 169 in the Eastern Cape and 639 in Gauteng.

The NICD said this increase represents a 17.0% positivity rate, while the seven-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased.

In addition, a further 134 COVID-19 related fatalities were recorded, pushing the death toll to 81 595 to date.

“There has been an increase of 127 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” the institute said, adding that the cumulative number of recoveries now stands at 2 526 199 with a recovery rate of 91.4%.

Globally, as of 27 August 2021, there have been 214 468 601 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 470 969 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.

Source: South African Government News Agency