E-Paper
Battling delta variant, South Africa sees record 26,000 fresh Covid-19 cases
South Africa has been witnessing a record surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in the third wave. This is driven by the Delta variant, first found in India. The number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 in South Africa has surpassed two million-mark.
South Africa recorded 26,000 fresh cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Saturday, breaking the record for most number of infections in a 24-hour span. This is the second consecutive time that Africa's most industrialised nation has registered record-breaking tally in the third wave of Covid-19.
The surge in infection has stretched South Africa's health services to breaking point, with hospitals out of beds and medics to man them, and forced the government to impose partial lockdown restrictions.
The number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 in South Africa has surpassed two million-mark, and 61,500 people have died, the national Department of Health said. The government data also showed that 3.3 million people - about 5% of the population - has been vaccinated.
More than 1.7 million people have recovered from Covid-19 in South Africa since the start of the outbreak.
The low vaccination rate has resulted from a mixture of bad luck and bureaucratic failures. The government had to destroy 2 million contaminated Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses earlier this year, while efforts to replace them have run up against global supply bottlenecks.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticised what he called global "vaccine apartheid," with rich countries with plentiful vaccine supplies hoarding them while poorer countries wait.
To tackle this problem, South Africa on Saturday approved China's Sinovac vaccine against Covid-19, as growing evidence emerges of its effectiveness.
The surge in infection in South Africa is driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus. This was indicated by the country's acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane last week.
The current resurgence could be worse than the second wave, the minister had said.
The South African government is expecting that the peak of the third wave would surpass that of the second wave in January.
