The Western Cape Government has announced that it is entering the third wave of COVID-19 infections due to a rapid increase in new cases.
More than 1 000 people have been hospitalised with an average of five deaths being recorded daily over the past week.
1/2 Update on the coronavirus and vaccines?
As at 1pm on 9 June 2021, the Western Cape had 5802 active COVID-19 infections, with a total number of 298 501 COVID-19 cases to date and 280 799 recoveries.
Statement: https://t.co/np74PH70EQ pic.twitter.com/J8wDR1wTDD
— Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) June 9, 2021
Speaking during a weekly digicon on COVID-19 infections and the vaccination drive, Premier Alan Winde urged the public to avoid large gatherings and stick to strict COVID-19 protocols.
“This is very concerning. We need to ensure that everybody in this province continues to keep flattening that curve. We have already been in two waves before this, we know what to do; I don’t want to see people relaxing, people letting their guard down. We need to make sure we continue with social distance, we continue wearing our masks, hand sanitizing.”
Western Cape experiences a resurgence of COVID-19 infections:
J&J vaccine
The Western Cape government says it is yet to get the go-ahead to use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This after it was suspended recently to investigate complications in the United States.
Provincial Head of the Health Department, Dr Keith Cloete, says vaccine delivery is piling up and putting pressure on the system.
He says about 160 000 people have been vaccinated in the province so far in line with their targets.
“What we have been able to do on the daily basis as now, it put us on a store to say the available doses that we have is just enough doses to type, crate how many vaccines we can do per day for the following five or six working days; that’s where the supply is. It’s very tight now we what we have to say is we only have enough doses to do x amount of vaccinations.”
