By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 12,222 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 1, 941,119. This increase represents a 28.3 % positivity rate.
The Gauteng province accounts for the majority of new cases (69%), followed by the Western Cape (7%) and a total of 43,155 tests were conducted in the last 24 hrs with 13,011,903 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
NICD said a further 138 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 60,038 to date.
Hospital Admissions:
An increase of 512 hospital admissions have been reported in the past 24 hours.
Vaccine Update:
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.
Meanwhile more than 185 000 educators and staff have been vaccinated in the basic education sector, as the sector continues the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
In a statement on Sunday, the Department of Basic Education said 30 000 teachers and support staff in Limpopo, were vaccinated on Friday and Saturday.
“The province has managed to administer the vaccine on 15 000 people in two successive days. At this rate Limpopo needs one more day to complete vaccinating everybody in the list,” the department said.
The sector targets to vaccinate 582 000 people by 8 July 2021, with eight provinces to continue with the vaccine rollout on Monday to Friday.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga joined Free State Education MEC Tate Makgoe on Monday, as the sector continues to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The monitoring visits started at the Seemahale Secondary School in Botshabelo and continue at Pontsheng Primary School, as well as Mpatleng Senior Secondary.
“The Minister proceed to the Northern Cape on Tuesday.Motshekga is scheduled to be in the Eastern Cape on Thursday this week,” the department said.
The visits are aimed at encouraging more people to get the vaccine.
The department said it is satisfied with the turnout thus far, and remains hopeful that the target will be met as scheduled.