DURBAN - HEALTH MEC Nomagugu Simelane said they had doubled the number of vaccinations on Tuesday at 5pm to 15 083. The figure was made up of 9 014 senior citizens and 6 069 health-care workers.
According to the KZN Health Department, the province continued to rank second highest regarding the number of laboratory-confirmed cases countrywide, contributing 338 163 cases. An average of 95 cases were recorded over the past seven days.
The province continued to rank as fourth-highest in terms of deaths in the country, with 10 470 deaths.
“KwaZulu-Natal is observing a steady increase in the number of cases recorded weekly with a slight increase in the incidence risk. However, the province has not crossed the alert line yet,” the department said.
On Tuesday night, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said 479 768 people had been vaccinated under the Sisonke Programme, with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Mkhize said 39 371 people had been vaccinated under Phase 2 of the vaccine roll-out, with their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
He said the number of Covid-19 cases in South Africa stood at 1 617 840, with recoveries at 1 527 968, which represented a recovery rate of 94.4%.
Mkhize said 80 people died from Covid-19-related complications – the Eastern Cape 6, Free State 22, Gauteng 32, KwaZulu-Natal 5, Limpopo 6 and the Western Cape 9 – which brought the total to 55 340 deaths.
He said the Free State and Gauteng provinces had been back-capturing deaths over April and May as part of their auditing processes.
Speaking at the launch of Phase 2 in KZN at the Royal Agricultural Showgrounds in Pietermaritzburg, Mkhize said they had experienced a number of challenges.
Mkhize said one of the issues they noticed was that there was a slow start because some of those administering it were still getting used to the Pfizer vaccine and were indicating that the mixing “got them in a bit of difficulty so they lost the last dose”.
He said six people are vaccinated with every vile. “Later today (Tuesday), we saw that people are getting used to it, so the wastage is less,” said Mkhize.
He said vaccinations were disrupted by protests such as one in Bloemfontein, where the Health Department had to close down a vaccination site.
“So we hope that alternatives will be worked on so that people can continue to vaccinate despite protests,” said Mkhize.
Daily News