By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 26,485 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,046,311. This increase represents a 27.3% positivity rate.
The Gauteng province accounts for the majority of new cases (61%), followed by the Western Cape (11%), and Limpopo (7%) provinces.
NICD said a further 175 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 61,507 to date.
Hospital Admissions:
An increase of 557 hospital admissions have been reported in the past 24 hours.
Vaccine Update:
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.
Meanwhile the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) has authorised the administering of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, under certain conditions.
One of Sahpra’s conditions is the submission of periodic safety data.
“This authorisation is based on the safety, quality and efficacy data submitted by Curanto Pharma (Pty) Ltd to Sahpra between 22 March 2021 and 22 June 2021.
“Although the data submitted are considered acceptable at this point, the authorisation is subject to a number of conditions. Specifically, the applicant is required to submit the final results of ongoing clinical studies. SAHPRA also took account of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) report on this vaccine,” said Sahpra.
According to Sahpra, Sinovac side-effects included pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue, muscle pain, diarrhoea and nausea. Most of the side-effects were mild or moderate in nature and cleared within a couple of days.