Category: COVID-19 Corona Virus

Cabinet has reminded South Africans to submit their applications for the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to support people who have no income.

Applications for the grant opened on Friday, 6 August 2021.

In a statement on Thursday, Cabinet said it is conscious of the hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent public violence in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Cabinet said the R350 per month grant is an important safety net for families, who would otherwise be devastated by the scourge of poverty and unemployment.

People between the ages of 18 and 60, who have no financial support of any kind, should apply. The first payments are expected to be made in the last week of August 2021.

The new iteration is for a period of eight months, with effect from August 2021 until March 2022.

“The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) opened new channels, where applications can be submitted via the govchat.app and Facebook Messenger, in addition to its website: https://srd.sassa.gov.za or through WhatsApp on 082 046 8553,” Cabinet said.

An amount of R26.7 billion has been allocated for the new iteration. This includes the administrative costs borne by SASSA.

The eligibility criteria for the COVID-19 SRD grant include:

– South African citizens;

– permanent residents or refugees registered on the Home Affairs database;

– persons who are holders of special permits under the Special Angolan Dispensation, the Lesotho Exemption Permit dispensation and the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit Dispensation;

– asylum seekers whose section 22 permits or visas are valid or were valid on 15 March 2020;

– currently residing within the borders of the Republic of South Africa;

– unemployed;

– not receiving any social grant;

– not receiving an unemployment insurance benefit and does not qualify to receive an unemployment insurance benefit;

– not receiving a stipend from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and other financial aid;

– not receiving any other government COVID-19 response support; and not a resident in a government funded or subsidised institution.

Caregivers, who are not receiving any grant on their own behalf, should also apply for the special grant.

South Africa has to date administered 9 557 542 jabs with 158 103 of those being administered on Monday.

The total number of Pfizer administered in the last 24 hours was 122 056 and a total of 36 047 Johnson and Johnson were administered.

Meanwhile, South Africa recorded 7 983 new COVID-19 cases bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 613 569.

This increase represents a 21.1% positivity rate.

“As per the National Department of Health, a further 299 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 77 440 to date,” the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.

The majority of new cases are from the Western Cape (27%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (24%).

Eastern Cape accounted for 18%; Gauteng and Northern Cape accounted for 9% each; Mpumalanga accounted for 7%; the Free State accounted for 6%; North West accounted for 3%; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of new cases.

“The total number of cases today (7 983) is lower than yesterday (10 139) and lower than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days (10 490). The seven-day moving average daily number of cases has increased,” NICD said.

There has been an increase of 331 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

A total of 15 633 622 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

South Africa has recorded 10 139 new COVID-19 cases and 272 COVID-19 related deaths.

According to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), this represents a positivity rate of 21%.

This brings the total number of reported COVID-19 cases to 2 605 586 with 77 141 total Covid-19 related fatalities reported.

In the past 24 hours, 219 new COVID-19 related hospitalisations have been reported.

The majority of new cases were reported in KwaZulu-Natal with 2 878 new cases and the Western Cape with 2 607 new cases.

Eastern Cape accounts for 1 352 new cases, Gauteng has 1 241 new cases, Free State reports 517 new cases, North West has 450 new cases, Mpumalanga accounts for 429 new cases, the Northern Cape has 406 new cases and Limpopo has the least new cases with 259 reported.

In the last 24 hours 10 039 vaccines were administered, while 9 387 129 have been administered in total.

South Africa has recorded 6 590 new COVID-19 cases and 189 COVID-19 related deaths.

The new cases brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 546 762. This increase represents an 18.8% positivity rate.

The 189 COVID-19 related deaths bring the total fatalities to 75 201 to date.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, says it continues monitoring and surveillance of COVID-19 in order to inform the public health response.

There has been an increase of 450 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

According to the department, the majority of new cases are from the Western Cape (30%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (23%).

Gauteng Province accounted for 19%, Eastern Cape accounted for 11%, Mpumalanga, Free State and North West each accounted for 4% respectively, Northern Cape and Limpopo Province each accounted for 2% respectively of today’s new cases.

South Africa administered 187 855 COVID-19 vaccines on Monday, with 7 769 799 jabs distributed to date.

The latest data show that 1 580 735 people have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, while 6 189 064 Pfizer jabs have been distributed.

In addition, the Department of Health said 100 148 people have been completed inoculated in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the country recorded 5 575 new COVID-19 cases, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 461 758.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this increase represents a 21.9% positivity rate.

The majority of new cases are from Western Cape (32%), followed by Gauteng (19%), while KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 18%.

In addition, 246 succumbed to the respiratory disease, pushing the tally to 72 437.

“There has been an increase of 415 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said.

This means there are currently 15 710 patients who are admitted for COVID-19 out of 150 933 active known cases, while the recovery rate remains at 90.9%.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are now 198 234 951 confirmed global cases of COVID-19, including 4 227 359 deaths.

In addition, the WHO reported that as of 29 July 2021, 3 839 816 037 vaccine doses have been administered.

South Africa has received 2.8 million Pfizer vaccine doses from the United States as part of a donation that is set to boost the country’s vaccination rollout campaign.

Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi was joined by Deputy Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla and the Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in South Africa, Todd Haskell, in accepting the consignment at OR Tambo International Airport on Saturday.

According to the Department of Health, the arrival of this first batch is part of a donation from the US government.

The initiative is part of the collaboration between the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), COVAX, and the US government, with the African Union Member States set to receive about 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to enhance coverage across the continent, and vaccinate at least 60% of the African population.

“The next batch will arrive on Tuesday to conclude the 5.6 million doses. The donation will contribute to the country’s expanded vaccination programme, which is fast gaining momentum to reach more people,” the Health Department said on Twitter.

The department said these life-saving vaccines arrive at a time when the country gears to vaccinate those aged between 18 and 34 from September.

“By the time we open for people between the ages of 18 and 34 to be vaccinated from the 1st of September 2021, we will be able to respond to the demand that this cohort will generate,” Kubayi said last week during a media briefing.

The department believes the donation contributes to the security of supply to meet the demands to reach government’s milestones to inoculate the majority of the population soon.

In addition, about 1 454 900 Johnson & Johnson vaccines are expected to be transported to various sites on Tuesday.

South Africa recorded 8 791 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, as the number of deaths climbed by 178.

This means that the country now has 2 456 184 laboratory-confirmed cases and a death toll of 72 191.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the majority of new cases were logged in the Western Cape after 2 333 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus.

The province is followed by 2 040 cases in Gauteng and 1 796 in KwaZulu-Natal.

“This increase represents a 23% positivity rate,” the NICD said.

In addition, the institution reported an increase of 204 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, a decrease from those that were reported on Saturday, pushing the total to 15 641. The country has 153 122 active cases.

The information is based on the 14 901 093 tests conducted,  38 234 of which were performed since the last reporting cycle.

Meanwhile, South Africa administered 17 390 COVID-19 vaccines in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative number to 7 567 757.

With the expected arrival of COVID-19 vaccine batches in the coming days, South Africa will soon be able to vaccinate one million people in three days.

Addressing the media on government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, acting Minister of Health, Mmamoloko Kubayi, said vaccination is expected to pick up momentum such that 400 000 vaccinations will be administered per day by the end of the week.

“By the time we open for people between the ages of 18 and 34 to be vaccinated from the 1st of September 2021, we will be able to respond to the demand that this cohort will generate,” the Minister said on Friday.

This week South Africa expected the number of vaccinated people per day to reach the target of 300 000.

“However, due to the constrained vaccine supply this week, the number of vaccinated people per day was around 220 000 which is likely to be the average this week.

“At the present rate of vaccination, we are currently vaccinating one million people in four days. The number of vaccinated people has just surpassed another milestone of seven million,” the Minister said.

This week the vaccine supply was constrained, which has negatively affected the rate of vaccination. This as some of the sites ran out of vaccines and people had to be turned away.

“The good news is that we received more vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and more Pfizer vaccines are expected in the coming days.”

The Minister has received a Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on vaccine advisory. “This relates to questions being asked about opening up for more vaccine to meet our demand. The advisory focused on Sinovac and AstraZeneca. We will communicate government’s decision in a week’s time.”

South Africa is expecting a delivery of about 10 million Johnson & Johnson doses and about 16 million Pfizer doses this quarter.

According to Department of Health Deputy Director-General, Dr Nicholas Crisp, 1 556 100 Pfizer does will arrive on Sunday 1 August for distribution next week.

“[A total of] 5 660 460 Pfizer doses are arriving between 31 July and 3 August and 1 454 900 Johnson & Johnson (J&J) doses are expected to be distributed in the week of 2 August,” Crisp said.

This week South Africa administered 7 297 912 doses of vaccines.

“We have been have been reaching our vaccination targets as we have been building up the capacity on the ground on the vaccinations but we are not reaching the most vulnerable sufficiently and that is something that we will focus o [in] the weeks ahead.

“Our target for August is to reach seven million people over the age of 35 but we must ensure that at least a million of those people are people over the age of 60,” he said.

Call for men to vaccinate

Crisp has encouraged men to be inoculated, as they have not been showing up in their numbers to vaccination sites.

“We are not managing to reach that many men, specifically in the older age group, above 50 men are not turning up for vaccination and we encourage men to come for vaccination,” Crisp said.

The department will focus on increasing vaccinations in 10 districts that are lagging behind the rest of the country.

The J&J vaccine, which originally targeted the public sector essential worker programme, has been placed in the population programme.

“Part of the focus will be ensuring that we get people in the pension pay queues vaccinated, a large number of those are people are over the age of 60,” said Crisp.

There were 215 066 people who received their COVID-19 vaccine, while the country detected 13 751 new cases on Thursday.

According to the Department of Health, this means the country has now administered 7 297 913 jabs since the start of the rollout programme in South Africa.

In addition, the number of adults that have been fully vaccinated stands at 2 835 930.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said the country’s cumulative infections have risen to 2 422 151 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Of the latest infections, the majority of new cases were recorded in the Western Cape after 3 968 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus. The province is followed by 3 655 in Gauteng and 1 900 in KwaZulu-Natal.

According to the NICD, the increase represents a 24.6% positivity rate.

In addition, a further 523 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing the tally to 71 431.

“There has been an increase of 598 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, a decrease from yesterday’s new hospital admissions, the NICD said on Thursday. A total 15 964 patients are currently receiving treatment in hospitals.

The information is based on the 14 750 901 tests of which 55 923 were performed since the last reporting cycle.

According to the World Health Organisation, as of 29 July 2021, there have been 195 886 929 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 4 189 148 deaths, and 3 830 124 730 administered vaccine doses.

South Africa’s vaccination rollout programme is accelerating, with over seven million vaccine doses administered to date.

According to the Department of Health, the country has now distributed 7 065 432 COVID-19 jabs, of which 194 891 people received their shot on Wednesday.

The recent statistics show that the total cumulative number of the administered Johnson & Johnson shots now stands at 1 386 580 and 5 678 852 for the Pfizer jab.

Meanwhile, South Africa detected 17 351 new COVID-19 cases from the 71 061 tests that were performed on Wednesday.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this means the country now has a total of 2 408 525 laboratory-confirmed cases, representing a 24.4% positivity rate.

The hardest-hit provinces include Gauteng which recorded 5 204 new infections, followed by 4 667 in the Western Cape and 1 975 in the KwaZulu-Natal.

In addition, a further 520 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, pushing the tally to 70 908 to date.

“There has been an increase of 726 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said.

According to the latest data, the country now has 150 629 active cases, while the recovery rate is standing at 90.8% after 2 186 988 people beat the virus.

According to the World Health Organisation, as of 28 July, there were 195 266 156 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 4 180 161 deaths, and 3 829 935 772 administered vaccine doses.