COVID-19: SOUTH AFRICA RECORDS 5,885 NEW CASES AND 281 DEATHS

281 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of total fatalities to 84,608.

FILE: Nomvelo Radebe (22) from Soweto received her COVID-19 vaccine jab at Bara Taxi Rank. Picture: Department of Health.

Eyewitness News

JOHANNESBURG - A further 281 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in South Africa, bringing the number of total fatalities since the beginning of the outbreak to 84,608.

Meanwhile, 5,885 new COVID-19 cases were identified in the same period, which brough the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,848,925.

In the last 24 hours, there has been an increase of 330 hospital admissions.

The total number of vaccines administered in the country so far sat at 14,610,572.

VACCINE TRIALS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS

The Numolux Group on Friday stressed that children should also be protected against COVID-19.

The company, which is the authorised representative of Sinovac Life Sciences, launched a vaccine trial to test the efficacy of the Sinovac COVID-19 shot in children and teenagers from six months to 17-years-of age.

Globally, 14.000 participants would be enrolled in the study with 2,000 of the volunteers coming from South Africa.

Seven trial sites would be operating across the country.

The trial's principal coordinator, Dr Sanet Aspinall said trial participants would not receive remuneration.

HERD IMMUNITY WON'T HAPPEN

Wits University Professor of Vaccinology Shabir Madhi has said that herd immunity will not happen.

He said that when it came to the Delta variant, about 85% of the population would need to develop immunity against infection and mild COVID for South Africa to reach herd immunity.