Mass vaccination drives gaining traction
Shireen Darmalingam
Vaccine update:
- More than 1.65 billion doses have been administered across 176 countries at a rate of 29.1 million doses a day.
- The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention warned that under-vaccinated areas could become hot spots for the Indian variant of the virus.
- US President Biden plans to send 20 million more vaccine doses abroad by the end of June.
- India’s Serum Institute has indicated that vaccine exports probably won't resume until the end of the year as it struggles to meet domestic needs.
- A recent study in Spain noted that combining the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines is safe and generates high levels of immunity.
- Research by DHL and McKinsey notes that 28.5 billion vaccines would likely be required to end the pandemic by 2023 and slow down virus mutations.
- The research suggests that 7-9 billion doses need to be administered in each of the next 2 years to keep infection rates low.
- This is in addition to 10-15 billion vaccines that it believes could be distributed by the end of this year.
- In South Africa, 647,983 vaccines have been administered to date.
Global cases update:
- Cases have surpassed 167.53 million, while the death toll has surpassed 3.47 million; recoveries are at 148.54 million.
- The US has 33.89 million cases, accounting for 20% of global cases; the US death toll is 604,087.
- The spread of infections in the US is continuing to slow.
- India has 26.75 million cases and 303,751 deaths; Brazil has 16.08 million cases and 449,185 deaths.
- India’s new cases continued to slow yesterday to the lowest in over a month.
- India’s capital, however, extended its lockdown until 31 May as it halted vaccinations of people aged 18 to 44 due to a shortage of vaccines.
- Asia is stepping up the fight against a resurgence in cases: Japan is increasing vaccinations, and Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia added new lockdown rules.
- The Japanese government is considering extending the state of emergency in 9 prefectures to 20 June.
Africa cases update:
- Africa’s Covid-19 cases are at 4.80 million; fatalities are at 128,741.
- Morocco has 517,023 reported cases, Nigeria 166,019, Ghana 93,620, Kenya 168,432.
- According to a recent study, critically ill patients in Africa face a higher risk of death as health systems lack key resources such as hospital beds and oxygen.
- The death rate in the month after admission to intensive care is around 48% on the continent, compared with 32% globally.
South Africa cases update:
- SA currently has the 20th highest caseload, at 1.635 million; 2,894 new cases were reported yesterday.
- Covid-19 deaths rose by 30 yesterday, to 55,802; 1.539 million people (or 94.1%) have recovered from the virus.
- Provincial caseload: Gauteng 443,846 (accounting for 27,1% of the total); KwaZulu-Natal has 338,853 (20,7% of the total); Western Cape 291,457 (17,8% of the total).
- Provincial deaths: Western Cape 11,751; Gauteng 11,032; KwaZulu-Natal 10,482.
- 11.35 million tests have been conducted since 5 March 2020; 29,355 tests were conducted yesterday.
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