One million South Africans have now been vaccinated

Johannesburg – One million South Africans have now been vaccinated against the coronavirus, health minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Tuesday night.

The list of the 1 045 104 people who have been vaccinated since the start of the year, includes 479 768 frontline healthcare workers who were inoculated under the Sisonke Programme during Phase 1 and more than s 565 336 elderly people over the age of 60 who have been vaccinated during Phase 2, which commenced in May.

“Today it is my pleasure to announce that we have breached the million mark and have vaccinated 1 045 104 individuals.

“I wish to thank all the those involved in the vaccination campaign, from the Director General of Health to each and every vaccinator continuing to battle it out for the nation in the frontline.

“We will continue to ramp up daily vaccinations, working together with the private sector, towards attaining the targets we have committed to as government,” said Mkhize in a statement on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, as the country breached the one million mark for inoculations, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced alert level 2 lockdown measures on Sunday, which were aimed at managing the spread of the coronavirus during the third wave – which has arrived at some parts of the country.

Mkhize said on Tuesday that there were 3614 new infections reported around the country, along with 95 virus-related deaths around the country.

He said over 36 600 tests were conducted.

Of the deaths, he said there were 44 in Gauteng, 27 in the Free State, 9 in the Western Cape, 7 in the Northern Cape, 5 in KZN and 3 in the Eastern Cape.

This takes the death toll to over 56 601 deaths.

“Provinces are continuing with their mortality audits and some dates have been back-captured from previous months.

“We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the health care workers who treated the deceased patients,” he said.

IOL