By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reports 11,093 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 1,843,572.
The majority of new cases today are from the Gauteng province (67%), followed by the Western Cape (8%) and this increase represents a 23.7 % positivity rate.
NICD said a further 297 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 59 092 to date.
Hospital Admissions:
An increase of 575 hospital admissions have been reported in the past 24 hours.
Vaccine Update:
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), added that it continues the monitoring and surveillance of COVID-19 to inform the public health response.
Meanwhile Acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says the government is looking at opening the Covid-19 vaccine registration portal for people aged 40 years and older.
Kubayi-Ngubane said she had received requests from scores of people worried about the increasing number of Covid-19 infections.
She said that the government was considering the requests and changes would be announced by the end of the week.
“I have received a request to say we need to consider opening the 40 plus, specifically because they are active, they move and all those things — we are looking at that,” she said.
Kubayi-Ngubane said opening up the registration portal will save the country’s economy.
“We would like to see the 40-plus registration open in the coming weeks so we can start making sure we vaccinate the people that are active and moving so we can save our economy as well,” she said.
According to statistics shared by the government’s head of digital communications, Athi Geleba, fewer than 500,000 people have been fully vaccinated in the country.