By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports 2,111 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,669,671.
This increase represents an 8.4% positivity rate.
Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 127 deaths and of these, 3 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,145 to date.
Minister of Health Joe Phaahla announced that during the financial year 2022/23; COVID-19 vaccinations will be integrated into routine health services in the public and private sector.
“The integration of COVID-19 vaccinations into [Public Health Care] services allow for improved uptake by targeting a captive audience of patients who access health services for a myriad other reasons. The integration will further decrease the duplicity of services and the need for additional management structures and health human resources that are in short supply,” he said.
He said the uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations has slowed down since about October last year.
“There was a dip in the uptake which would rise when there’s a new wave. The more people hear that this is not so deadly then you find that the uptake is reducing, but the coverage has moved steadily. In terms of adult coverage of at least one jab per adult, we are just under 48% coverage, “he said.
The total number of doses administered have now reached at least 31.2 million.
“We still have our aspiration [of vaccinating 70% of the population] and we emphasise again that we do have the capacity to provide this service. All that is required is for people to come forward.”
Phaahla said the older population has “come forward in big numbers” to vaccinate and he encouraged the youth to do the same.
The department has embarked on an awareness campaigns driven by young people in order to appeal to youth who still have not vaccinated.
“There are very promising signs. Over this week, we have seen a little bit of a rise over the last few days from just over 70 000 to just a little bit under 90 000. So it looks like the campaign by young people is gaining ground,” Phaahla said.
The Health Minister warned that the fifth wave of COVID-19 infections “is on its way” and urged all those living in the country to get their jabs.
“This is the time. As much as the infection rate is lower, the numbers in hospital and people who are very sick is lower; we know that this is very unpredictable.
“The scientists tell us that the fifth wave is on its way. We don’t know how it might be. We are optimistic that even if it is highly infectious, hopefully like Omicron, it might be milder in terms of severity of illness. “But ultimately…the only weapon is vaccination, “he said.