Cabinet says the country is slowly winning the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with over 40% of the adult population fully vaccinated. Currently, almost 100 000 people have succumbed to the pandemic with the positivity rate now standing at less than 10%.
The infection rate is also low hovering just above one-thousand a day. Briefing the media on the outcomes of Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Minister in the Presidency Mondi Gungubele encourages those who are vaccinated to take their booster shots.
“Cabinet is pleased that almost 32 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered and that over 42 percent of our adult population is fully vaccinated. However, unvaccinated people still remain unprotected against COVID-19 and pose a health risk to themselves and those around them. Vaccination remains the best way to fight COVID-19. Booster shots are now freely available for most people and Cabinet calls on those who are eligible to get boosted as soon as possible.”
Minister in The Presidency, Mondli Gungubele media briefing on outcomes of the Cabinet meeting
COVID-19 stats
In the past 24 hours, South Africa recorded 1 867 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed infections to 3 688 423.
The National Department of Health (NDoH) also reported 13 deaths and of these, 10 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours, taking the total fatalities to 99 656.
Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the NDoH says, there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported.
CoughWatchSA
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has announced the pilot launch of a respiratory health survey designed to monitor acute respiratory tract infections that include COVID-19 and influenza-like illnesses.
The survey called CoughWatchSA will also link eligible participants to a home-based testing study, where they may receive a laboratory confirmation for various viral infections. It’s believed that CoughWatch will support and improve the detection and monitoring of respiratory disease outbreaks through user-reporting of symptoms. NICD’s data manager Mvuyo Makhasi explains further:
