Cape Town – Five million South Africans have been vaccinated by Friday, as the Health Department said that 15 939 new Covid-19 cases were reported and 413 coronavirus-related deaths.
“A total of 54 097 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, with 15 939 new cases, which represents a 29.5% positivity rate,” the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said in a Tweet.
“A further 413 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 66 385 to date.”
The total number of laboratory-confirmed cases stood at 2 269 179 and 14 154 725 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors, the NCID said.
The NCID said the majority of new cases were from Gauteng (38%), followed by Western Cape (19%).
Limpopo accounted for 12%; Mpumalanga accounted for 9%; North West accounted for 8%; Eastern Cape accounted for 5%; KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 4%; Free State accounted for 3%; and Northern Cape accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.
Meanwhile acting Health Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, said the department was picking up the pace of the vaccination roll-out programme.
“We are indeed picking up the pace of our vaccine roll-out program as instructed by the president. Today we hit 5 million people vaccinated,” she tweeted.
“Special Appreciation to Health Team both in Public and Private Sector for the hard work.”
We are indeed picking up the pace of our vaccine rollout program as instructed by the President. Today we hit 5 million people Vaccinated. Special Appreciation to Health Team both in Public and Private Sector for the hard work. 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 #VaccinateToSaveSouthAfrica
— Mmamoloko Nkhensani Kubayi (@mmkubayi) July 16, 2021
There has been an increase of 714 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, the NICD said.
IOL