SA's mass vaccination drive kicks off today

Vaccine update:

• More than 1.45 billion doses have been administered across 176 countries at a rate of 23.7 million doses a day.
• Indonesia has paused the use of a specific batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine while its regulator investigates side-effects.
• China is vaccinating close to 14 million people a day; this comes as China detected a first “new cluster” in months.
• Many nations in Asia are struggling to overcome citizens’ vaccine hesitancy.
• Mumbai cancelled vaccinations today at all public sites after a cyclone warning.
• Health authorities in Africa are worried that stalled vaccination drives, weak health infrastructure and the emergence of new variants could lead to a situation similar to that in India.
• Ghana will be administering vaccines from the WHO-backed Covax facility from Wednesday.
• UNICEF has called for the UK to donate 20% of its vaccines to low-income countries and has called on other G7 countries to also donate vaccines.
• France plans to donate up to 5% of its vaccine stocks to the Covax facility.
• In South Africa, 478,733 vaccines have been administered to date.
• SA will start its mass vaccination drive today at 87 sites across the country using Pfizer vaccines for frontline healthcare workers and the elderly.
• The government aims to have vaccinated more than 5 million senior citizens by the end of June.
• A recent NIDS/CRAM survey on vaccine hesitancy has found that 71% of SA adults say they would get vaccinated if a COVID-19 vaccine was available.
• Those with chronic conditions and the elderly were more willing thant the general public to take the vaccine
• Amongst the 29% that are hesitant to take the vaccine, 31% are concerned about side effects, 21% believe that the vaccine is ineffective and 18% did not trust vaccines in general.
• The survey also noted that vaccine acceptance is higher than recent estimates from the US and France, but lower than China, Brazil and the UK.

Global cases update:

• Cases have surpassed 163.72 million, while the death toll has surpassed 3.39 million; recoveries are at 142.18 million.
• The US has 33.71 million cases, accounting for 21% of global cases; the US death toll is 600,147. 
• India has 24.96 million cases and 274,411 deaths; Brazil has 15.62 million cases and 435,823 deaths.
• England will ease lockdown restrictions from today.
• Singapore and Taiwan will tighten restrictions this week.

Africa cases update:

• Africa’s Covid-19 cases are at 4.73 million; fatalities are at 126,652.
• Morocco has 514,944 reported cases, Nigeria 165,709, Ghana 93,243, Kenya 165,4656.

South Africa cases update:

• SA currently has the 20th highest caseload, at 1.613 million; 2,585 new cases were reported yesterday.
• Covid-19 deaths rose by 27 yesterday, to 55,210; 1.524 million people (or 95%) have recovered from the virus.
• Provincial caseload: Gauteng 434,597 (accounting for 26,9% of the total); KwaZulu-Natal has 338,029 (20,9% of the total); Western Cape 289,786 (18% of the total).
• Provincial deaths: Western Cape 11,709; Gauteng 10,875; KwaZulu-Natal 10,459.
• 11.11 million tests have been conducted since 5 March 2020; 27,543 tests were conducted yesterday.

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