COVID-19 Update | 17 December 2021

Published: Fri, 12/17/21

Vaccine Rollout

According to SA coronavirus, 15.2 million (38.29%) of the South African population have now been fully vaccinated. People from the ages of 12 can now get vaccinated from their nearest vaccination centres. Find your nearest site here.

The number of vaccinated individuals changes on a daily basis. To get accurate updates on the vaccine rollout visit the external resources section on our COVID-19 Vaccine page or click here.

Source: SA coronavirus

COVID-19 Cases

As of 14 December, 23 884 new COVID-19 cases have been reported and the number of active COVID-19 cases has now risen to 170 900. The recovery rate is now sitting at 91.9%. South Africa still has a long way to go before reaching immunity and therefore, it is important to continue adhering to all COVID-19 safety regulations.

Source: SA Coronavirus

What we know about the Omicron variant thus far

It has been three weeks since the first report of the Omicron variant by South African scientists and since then, more studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of vaccines and how transmissible this new COVID-19 variant is.

What we do know thus far is that the variant shows “milder” symptoms than the previous variants. It is said that it is 29% less severe than the previous variants, however, it is more transmissible in children and a 250% re-infection rate has been reported as opposed to the prior Delta variant.

Vaccines remain the most effective measure to take in protecting yourself against the severity of the virus and hospitalisation.

As more news continues to develop about COVID-19 click here to see our WhatsApp image to find out more.

UK lifts its Omicron travel ban on South Africa and 10 other Southern African nations

The UK has lifted the travel ban it imposed on South Africa and ten other countries from its maligned ‘red list’ for travel after the emergence of the Omicron variant.

British High Commissioner to South Africa Antony Phillipson, confirmed that travellers from South Africa will be able to enter England without having to enter hotel quarantine – instead, they will only have to comply with requirements applying to everyone entering the UK, such as showing proof of full vaccination.

Since then the South Africa's Department of International Relations wants the UK to compensate South Africa for economic damage done by the travel ban.

Source: Daily Maverick

Labs agree to lower cost of COVID PCR tests

The Competition Commission has revealed that South Africa’s largest private pathology laboratories have been earning significant profits off PCR [polymerase chain reaction] tests. This follows a number of complaints lodged by the Council for Medical Schemes with the commission in October, alleging the price of PCR tests was “unfairly inflated”, “exorbitant” and “unjustifiable”. The prices of PCR tests have remained persistently high despite private laboratories experiencing substantial cost reductions in conducting the tests.

Since then, the pricing of the PCR has drastically been reduced by 42% from its initial R850 to R500.

Source: Daily Maverick

Sincerely,

Kaelo

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