DURBAN - SOUTH AFRICA’S vaccine concerns might be a thing of the past after the country has been receiving ever more good news on acquiring further vaccine doses.
However, while the country had largely passed the peak of the third wave, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape were on an upward trajectory, said acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi.
On Saturday, Kubayi, deputy health minister Dr Joe Phaahla and Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in South Africa, Todd Haskell, went to OR Tambo International Airport to receive 2.8 million Pfizer vaccine doses donated by the US government. The next and final batch of 5.6 million vaccines is expected to arrive on Tuesday.
In KwaZulu-Natal, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said the areas affected over the three or four days of civil unrest had been unable to offer vaccinations, but they were catching up as all (195) sites were now operating.
“The sites we had closed for vaccinations were those sites in community halls. Even then, it was not the whole province, others were able to operate. At hospitals and clinics that were conducting vaccinations, we were vaccinating during that time,” said Simelane.
The vaccination roll-out was going well, she said, but they were concerned about those aged 35 and above because some were not registering on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS).
As of Friday, the KZN public health sector had vaccinated 116 434 healthcare workers with both the Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer vaccines, while only 44 706 had received just the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
While 602 176 persons aged 60 years and over had registered on EVDS, 498 197 had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 275 801 had received both.
Of those aged between 50 and 59, 257 642 had registered on the EVDS while 119 620 had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and 2 772 had received both; 101 945 of those aged between 35 and 49 have received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, in a pool of 341 197 who had registered for vaccination.
Approximately 120 074 Department of Basic Education employees and 7 381 Department of Social Development employees had been vaccinated.
A total of 1 004 236 people had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and 310 622 had received the second dose. A total of 94 055 vaccinations had been conducted in the private sector.
On Friday, Kubayi said although the country had passed the peak of the third wave, the Western Cape and KZN were on an upward trajectory.
On Sunday, the KZN Health Department revealed that the province had 2 289 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the accumulative total to 395 561, while 11 643 people had died from Covid-19-related complications. The average number of cases recorded in the past seven days was 1 648 per day. The seven-day moving average increased since July 20 from 717 to 1 648 cases daily.
“The number of daily cases has started increasing in the province compared to the week of unrest,” said the department. “The number of daily hospital isolations increases steadily in both the private and public sector, including intensive care units and patients requiring ventilation.”
The average number of isolations had also increased from 52 to 120 admissions daily since the beginning of July (seven-day moving average).
Simelane said a positive was that active cases in the province had dropped.
Daily News