COVID-19 WRAP | SA records 2,585 new Covid-19 cases

May 16 2021 - 22:43

SA records 2,585 new Covid-19 cases

South Africa recorded 2,585 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday.

He said the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases is 1,613,728 and the total number of deaths is 55,210 while the total number of recoveries was at 1 524 352.

May 16 2021 - 22:01

Gauteng plans to vaccinate 1.3 million elderly citizens in phase 2 of Covid-19 vaccination

The Gauteng health department said it was hoping to vaccinate just over 1.3 million people over the age of 60 in the second phase of the Covid-19 vaccination plan in the province. 

Speaking on behalf of the province's health department, Nomsa Mmope said: ""We have the capacity of vaccinating 36 200 people per day," she added.

Mmope said the province had 218 old ages it was targeting for vaccinations. These had a population of almost 27 000 people. 

May 16 2021 - 21:56

Northern Cape ready for any eventuality during phase two of vaccine rollout, says health MEC

Northern Cape health MEC Maruping Lekwane on Sunday said he was concerned about the increasing number of Covid-19 infections in the province – this as the country kicks off phase two the national vaccination rollout on Monday.  

“Our concern as a province is the number of infections which have increased over the past few weeks and this of course this indicates that we have deploy intense measures in addition to an increased testing to improve our track in tracing the infections,” he said.

Speaking during the launch of the phase two of the national vaccination programme, Lekwane said the province will be targeting the Frances Baard and Pixley kaSeme district municipalities.

May 16 2021 - 21:10

Getting the Covid-19 jab doesn’t guarantee 100% immunity from the virus, warns Mkhize

Health minister Zweli Mkhize has warned South Africans that receiving the Covid-19 vaccine did not guarantee complete immunity from with the virus.

“The vaccine will protect you from getting severe Covid disease or dying from Covid. However no vaccine works 100% and we also still do not know whether vaccination prevents transmission of the virus,” Mkhize said.

“It is therefore still important to follow the standard Covid-19 safety precautions to protect yourself and those around you,” he added.

May 16 2021 - 21:04

Free State ready to vaccinate vulnerable

Free State province health MEC Montseng Tsiu on Sunday said the province was ready to vaccinate more than 288 000 of its vulnerable citizens. 

“We have already received our vaccines and so we are ready to start,” said Tsiu during the launch of the phase two Covid-19 national vaccine rollout.  

She said: “The total number of the population that we are targeting for this phase two is 288 240, at the moment the total number of people who have registered thus far is 37 741 and we are continuing with the registration.”

May 16 2021 - 20:39

Mkhize: Mass vaccine will see a slow start, but process is ready to roll

Health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday it may be a slow start in the beginning of the the second phase of the Covid-19 vaccinations but the numbers should pick up in the course of the month.

The second phase of the vaccinations was scheduled to begin this week.

Mkhize said vaccine administrators may need to get comfortable with the vaccines before we could see a steady incline in the number of vaccines being administered daily. 

May 16 2021 - 16:54

Gauteng and Western Cape release lists of sites for phase 2 of Covid-19 vaccinations

With Gauteng reported to officially be in the grips of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, phases 1B and two of the mass vaccination programme are scheduled to be rolled out from Monday.

The Gauteng health department said phase 1B of the vaccinations would see   healthcare workers who had not yet been vaccinated, traditional health practitioners and staff employed at funeral parlours being vaccinated. 

Phase 2 of the vaccination rollout programme will target vulnerable people who are 60 years and older.

May 16 2021 - 11:07

As Covid-19 numbers rise, officials try to stem panic of a third wave

Healthcare workers and officials are downplaying the looming threat of a third wave of Covid-19 infections despite steadily rising case numbers in most of SA’s provinces.

The health department said last week that while the upward trend in cases across SA was “worrying”, the country was not yet in a third wave of the pandemic.

“The Free State, Gauteng, Northern Cape and North West are of particular concern, but every province, with the notable exception of the Eastern Cape, has at least one district of concern,” the department said.

May 16 2021 - 10:14

Bodies of Covid-19 victims among those dumped in India's Ganges -govt document

Bodies of Covid-19 victims have been found dumped in some Indian rivers, a state government said in a letter seen by Reuters, the first official acknowledgement of an alarming practice it said may stem from poverty and fear of the disease in villages.

Images of corpses drifting down the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, have shocked a nation reeling under the world's worst surge in infections.

Although media have linked the recent increase in the numbers of such bodies to the pandemic, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 240 million people, has until now not publicly revealed the cause of the deaths.

May 16 2021 - 10:11

Australia sticks by plan to re-open border in mid-2022

Australia is sticking to plans to start re-opening to the rest of the world only from the middle of next year, officials said on Sunday, resisting mounting pressure to end the closure of international borders.

In March 2020, Australia closed its borders to non-nationals and non-residents and has since been allowing only limited international arrivals, mainly citizens returning from abroad.

"All the way through we will be guided by the medical advice," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a televised briefing. "We will be guided by the economic advice."

May 16 2021 - 06:00

'Trickle down vaccination is not an effective strategy for fighting a deadly respiratory virus': Ghebreyesus