South African Health Minister Joe Phala on Friday said the number of new COVID-19 cases nationally has decreased this week as compared to the previous week, reported CGTN Africa.
During a virtual briefing on Friday, Phala provided an update on the vaccination rollout program in the country and the government’s fight against the pandemic.
The South African health minister said the number of COVID-19 cases across the country had been decreasing steadily over the last seven days. There has been a 4.8% reduction in reported deaths and a 6.3% reduction in hospitalizations over the last seven days. He said Gauteng has officially exited its fourth wave, while eight other provinces were still experiencing it.
Phaahla said although several studies claim the Omicron variant to be less severe than previous variants, it is still deadly to non-vaccinated, the elderly, and people with comorbidities.
“We must emphasize that the 4th wave is showing unequivocally the protection of vaccination against severe illness and death,” he said.
Phaahla said the health authorities had set up many vaccination spots even by the border and beaches to allow people to vaccinate, but, the vaccination campaign suffered during the festive season as a large number of people were focused on spending time with loved ones rather than getting the Covid-19 jab. He said the vaccines campaign was failing to vaccinate 100,000 people per day.
“As of the close of business last night, 28.7 million doses had been administered to a total of 18.4 million adult individuals which translates into 45 percent of all adults above the age of 18 years having received at least one jab,” the South African minister said.
Phaahla said the government is also working on new proposals to lift South Africa’s national state of disaster. The national state of disaster is set to lapse in mid-January.
