Wednesday | December 30, 2020

South Africa recorded 17, 710 coronavirus infections on Wednesday, Dec. 30. This is a jump in cases by almost double from yesterday’s Covid-19 statistics. Again, the confirmed number of dead people today is 465.

The official cumulative total of all cases in SA is 1, 039 161 while the overall death count stands at 28, 033 according to the National Health Department. Further, it reported 867, 597 patients who recovered.

This alarming increase in coronavirus cases comes two days after President Cyril Ramaphosa moved the country back to Level 3 of the national lockdown which imposes more stricter conditions.

The second wave of the pandemic is fuelled by the 501.V2, a new variant of the virus which is spreading faster than the first one. As a consequence, the level of hospitalisations have gone up. Matter of factly, hospital beds have run out.

As many countries rush towards securing vaccines for Covid-19, South Africa lags behind. President Ramaphosa said during his national address on Monday night, Dec. 29, that SA will begin rolling out vaccinations in the second term of 2021.

Quite obviously, this has irked some citizens. At high risk are the frontline workers who will be first in line for vaccine jabs alongside the elderly and other vulnerable groups.

The backdrop of these concerns about vaccine delays stem from other countries with similar status as South Africa. In the Americas for instance – Argentina, Mexico and Chile – (they) are vaccinating their citizens against all expectations and focus on well-to-do and more affluent countries.

Even so, “many people in low-income countries might have to wait until 2023 or 2024 for vaccination,” according to Nature citing estimates from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center in Durham, North Carolina.