Pretoria - Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams has appealed to residents to vaccinate and protect their communities as the number of active Covid-19 cases in the capital city continues to rise.
“The City of Tshwane would like to encourage all persons 12 years and older to go out and get vaccinated. This call comes as the City has noted a slow uptake of vaccines,” said Williams.
As of 27 November 2021, the City of Tshwane had administered a total of 1 573 485 vaccines. Of these, 899 472 people have been fully vaccinated, either through the Johnson & Johnson single dose or two Pfizer doses.
Williams said these figures represent an increase from the previous month of about 250 000 additional vaccines administered.
“Unfortunately, this is still lower than what we anticipated and is simply not enough for Tshwane to reach herd immunity,” he said.
“Currently, the 40 to 49 year age group is the most vaccinated with 204 882 individuals fully vaccinated. The second-highest age cohort is the 30 to the 39-year category, with 198 590 fully vaccinated individuals.”
The 20 to 29 year age group is sitting with 118 306 fully vaccinated individuals, while the vulnerable 60 years and older cohort have 185 644 fully vaccinated individuals.
Overall, Williams said, as of 27 November 2021, only 29,59 percent of the Tshwane population had been fully vaccinated.
Tshwane is estimated to have a population of 3 039 308.
“Taking these figures into consideration, with the rising number of active Covid-19 cases, the City has ensured that its comprehensive Covid-19 management strategy is implemented across Tshwane by conducting door-to-door educational campaigns and setting up pop-up vaccination sites in identified hotspot areas,” said Williams.
“Vaccination is the best defence we have against Covid-19 and is critical in ensuring that we do not have many infected people ending up in hospital.”
New daily coronavirus infections in South Africa on Tuesday doubled to 4 373 new Covid-19 cases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases announced. This comes while another 21 deaths due to Covid-19 complications were reported on Tuesday.
“Today, the institute reports 4 373 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 968 052.
“This increase represents a 10.2 percent positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 21 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 843 to date.
“A total of 19 477 054 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors,” the NICD said.
The organisation said the Gauteng province continues to be the epicentre of the increase in new Covid-19 cases, as it accounts for 72 percent of the day’s cases, followed by the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, each accounting for 6 percent of cases.
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