Anther 384 people have died, with the death toll now on 78 377. The recovery rate is 91%.
A consortium of civil society and health organisations has called on the South African Government for more transparency on its vaccine-production agreement with Johnson & Johnson. This after a report in the New York Times that millions of doses of the J&J vaccine, produced in the Eastern Cape, are being exported to other parts of the World. South Africa reportedly had to sign a clause, preventing the country from restricting the export of vaccines. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Right to Health, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, says if this is true, it will add to vaccine-apartheid, currently being experienced.
The Limpopo health department says not a single Covid-19 vaccinated healthcare worker died during the third wave. Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba believes this will help vaccine-hesitant people get the jab. For a few weeks, the country’s vaccination drive smashed inoculation targets, with up to 250 000 people per day. However, it has hit a slump over the last 3 weeks, with an average of around 175 000 vaccines administered daily, and many sites sitting empty.
Further afield, Pope Francis says getting the coronavirus vaccine is “an act of love”, as the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics has joined a campaign to boost confidence in Covid-19 vaccinations. The coronavirus has killed at least 4.3-million people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.
Australian authorities have begun handing out emergency supplies of covid-19 vaccines in the Sydney suburbs worst hit by an outbreak of the fast-moving Delta variant. This as New South Wales state has reported another record rise in daily cases. The acceleration in inoculations in Sydney is providing some hope as the city battles its worst outbreak since the pandemic began.
