The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has reported 2 281 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in the country in the last 24-hours, bringing the total number of cases to 2 882 630.
As per the National Department of Health statement, a further 58 more people have succumbed to COVID-19 related complications. This puts the total death toll at 86 174.
As of today the cumulative number of #COVID19 cases identified in SA is 2 882 630 with 2 281 new cases reported. Today 58 deaths have been reported bringing the total to 86 174 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 2 732 363 with a recovery rate of 94,8% pic.twitter.com/iQqBYM1n05
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) September 19, 2021
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A vaccine summit being hosted by US President Joe Biden must come up with a plan this week to transfer 100 million stockpiled COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries before they reach their expiry date, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
Biden is due to convene a virtual COVID-19 summit on Wednesday on the margins of the UN General Assembly, aimed at boosting vaccinations worldwide with the goal of ending the pandemic by the end of 2022.
Brown said he had sent Biden and fellow G7 leaders research by Airfinity, a scientific information and analytics company, which found 100 million COVID-19 vaccines stockpiled in rich countries in the northern hemisphere would expire by December without being used.
Out of 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines administered around the world, only 2% have been in Africa.
“We need a plan to distribute vaccines quickly,” Brown, Britain’s finance minister for a decade before serving as prime minister from 2007 to 2010, said in a statement.
“It will be a profound and collective political tragedy if this summit misses the opportunity to act with doses transferred immediately to poorer countries,” he said.
The Airfinity data predicts that, without a speed-up in the vaccine roll-out, there will be 100 million more COVID-19 cases by next summer and one million more deaths from lack of ventilators and oxygen.
