By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports 3,785 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 802 198. 

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (45%) followed by KwaZulu-Natal (28%). Western Cape accounted for 12%; Free State accounted for 5%; Eastern Cape accounted for 4%; Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 2% respectively; and Limpopo and Northern Cape each accounted for 1% respectively of today’s new cases. 

This increase represents a 17.6% positivity rate.

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (17.6%), and is lower than yesterday (21.0%). The 7-day average is (20.6%) today, and is lower than yesterday (20.7%). The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has increased.

Today, the National Department of Health (NDoH) reports 7 deaths and of these, 2 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,377 to date.

As South Africa enters the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country is struggling to get people to get their booster vaccination shots.  

Currently, the country is seeing a steady increase in the number of new Covid-19 cases.  

National health spokesperson Foster Mohale said they were still struggling to get people vaccinated.  

Mohale said it was also hard to get people who are already vaccinated to get a booster shot.  

He said, our main priority is to have [the] majority of our target population get fully vaccinated so they can be eligible for booster shots. However, we equally wish to have all fully vaccinated [people] to get a booster shot, and the data shows that [the] majority of fully vaccinated [people] are yet to receive a booster shot.

On Monday, only 2 384 people received booster shots.

In total, about 2 738 123 booster shots have been administered. 

Only 44.8% of the population is currently fully vaccinated. 

The lowest proportion of those fully vaccinated are 18-34 years at 31.13%. Over 63.77% of people aged 60 and above are fully vaccinated, the highest proportion.  

KwaZulu-Natal has the lowest proportion of people who are fully vaccinated at 38.22%. The Free State has the highest proportion of a vaccinated population at 54.47%.  

At the end of May,  the Covid-19 appeals committee hearings into Covid-19 vaccines in children will sit to determine whether children should get the vaccine.  

Last July, Sahpra authorised a paediatric Covid-19 trial on children aged six months to eight years for the Sinovac vaccine. In September, it approved the Pfizer vaccine to be administered to children aged 12 and above.

Free the Children - Save the Nation launched an appeal against both decisions last October. 

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla appointed Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi to chair the committee. 

Free the Children - Save the Nation recommended Dr Herman Edeling and Dr Stephen Schmidt to be on the committee, while SAHPRA recommended Professor Glenda Gray and Professor Salim Abdool Karim.

The committee will determine whether SAHPRA acted lawfully in making its decisions on the trials and administering vaccines to minors.