More than 17 million people in SA vaccinated with at least one dose of J&J or Pfizer: Dr Crisp

About 17-million people have so far been fully vaccinated or received one of the two COVID-19 vaccinations in South Africa.

The government is pushing for at least 70% of the adult population to be vaccinated by end of the year.

The Department of Health Acting Director-General, Dr Nicholas Crisp says the number of people getting vaccinated has been fluctuating.

“The number of old individuals has also picked up and we have over 17-million people who had at least one dose [of] either Johnson & Johnson (J&J) or Pfizer vaccine. This is a moving trend and at least by end of the week it may be more.”

“But we know there was a period of violence in the country. That is when we started to run out of vaccines and we lost momentum and picked up again. We are down again because people are getting tired of COVID-19 but things are getting a bit better,” explains  Crisp.

Health ministry briefs media on the national vaccination rollout program:

Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says it is not clear at this stage if there will be any adjustments to the coronavirus lockdown regulations to minimise public movement during the festive season.

The country has continued to post an increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant.

However, he says there is no need to panic.

57 countries worldwide have reported COVID-19 cases linked to the new variant.

Dr Phaahla says it is not yet clear how many of the over 22 000 newly-reported cases in the country can be specifically linked to the Omicron variant.

“The National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will be meeting Tuesday or Wednesday and we will make recommendations based on what we are reporting even today here. We will also depend on our ministerial advisory committee.”

“So as for what kind of changes to level 1 or whether proposals to either level 2 or we are not in a position to say so. We will be looking not only at the numbers but also at all those risks, economy and social behaviour,” says the minister.

COVID-19 statistics in South Africa: 9 December 2021

In the past 24 hours, the country has recorded 22 391 new COVID-19 cases.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 093 452.

The increase represents a 29.8% positivity rate.

There has been a further 22 COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24-hours, taking the death toll to 90 060.