Cape Town – South Africa reported 13 261 new Covid-19 cases and 268 deaths, while 68 850 people got vaccinated, on Saturday.
The Health Department said the cumulative number of cases identified in SA stood at 2 680 225.
“Today 268 deaths have been reported bringing the total to 79 251 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 2 438 182 with a recovery rate of 91%” the department said on Twitter.
According to the statistics released, 10 499 974 vaccines have been administered, an increase of 68 850 from Friday’s 10 431 124.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said the new cases represented a 20.8% positivity rate.
The institute said to date, 15 951 284 tests had been conducted in both public and private sectors.
“The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (29%), followed by Western Cape (24%),” the NICD said.
“Eastern Cape accounted for 15%; Gauteng accounted for 11%; Free State accounted 6%; North West accounted for 5% each; Mpumalanga accounted for 4%; Northern Cape accounted for 3%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.”
The NICD said that today’s total number of cases, 13 261, was lower than Friday’s 14 312. It said the cases were higher than the average number of new cases per day over the 7 preceding days with 12 111.
“The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has increased,” the institute said.
“There has been an increase of 356 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.”
On Friday, vaccinations opened for all adults in South Africa and health experts strongly advised against intensive physical activity before and after receiving a vaccine dose.
Briefing the media about the Covid-19 pandemic, on Friday, Dr Daniel Israel, a general practitioner in Johannesburg, said having a vaccine could give you a day or two of a slightly achy body, headaches or a sore throat.
He said, to take it easy on the day of the vaccine and and to go only when you were healthy.
“If you don’t have symptoms, you don't think you have Covid-19 and you end up vaccinating, you will be fine,” Israel said.
“However, if you have been exposed to someone with Covid-19 in the last few days, you should delay getting your vaccine, and once you have been vaccinated, you should use paracetamol to treat your side effects. If they persist for longer, you should contact your doctor.”
IOL