Trending3.07.2021

New record number of daily Covid-19 cases – with over 16,000 in Gauteng

South Africa’s new daily Covid-19 cases surged to a record 26,485 on Saturday, with 16,091 of these cases recorded in Gauteng. This increase represents a 27.3% positivity rate.

This was announced by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, on Saturday.

The record number of infections comes a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa placed the country under stricter lockdown.

The total number of laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa is now 2,046,311.

A further 175 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 61,507 to date.

The Gauteng province accounts for the majority of new cases (61%), followed by the Western Cape (11%) and Limpopo (7%) provinces.

An increase of 557 hospital admissions has been reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the current admissions to 13,846.

As part of the fight against the virus, South African regulators have approved Sinovac Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine.

According to a statement on Saturday, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority backed the double-dose CoronaVac candidate made by Sinovac’s Life Sciences unit with conditions.

Those include satisfactory results of ongoing studies and periodic safety updates, SAHPRA said.

The acceptance, which has similar terms to those given to other vaccine manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson, comes as South Africa this week opened its immunization roll-out to people aged 50 and older.

The country faces a severe third wave as the more infectious delta variant of the disease becomes widespread, and only about 6% of the national population has been vaccinated.

CoronaVac is indicated for people between the ages of 18 and 59 years and has a provisional shelf life of two years when stored at 2–8 degrees Celsius (35.6-46.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and protected from light, the regulator said.

SAHPRA also took into account the World Health Organization’s emergency use listing report on the vaccine in giving its approval, according to the statement.

Earlier this week, SAHPRA Chief Executive Officer Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela said the regulator is moving faster on the emergency-use application for the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine after the producer submitted data.

The agency has also received an application for the Sinopharm vaccine developed by China.

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