Vaccinations continue apace, but unevenly so

Vaccine update:

• More than 673 million doses have been administered across 155 countries at a rate of 16.2 million doses a day.
• Brazil expects to vaccinate 1 million people per day in April; a doubling of that number is expected in May. 
• The US has administered 167 million vaccine shots, India 79 million, Brazil 25 million, Germany 14 million and Japan only 1.2 million.
• Nigeria hopes to receive up to 70 million doses of the J&J vaccine this year through the African Union.
• Madagascar has now joined the global COVAX vaccine initiative.
• SA finalized a deal for 20 million shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Deliveries are expected to start later this month, allowing SA to begin a broad roll-out of vaccinations. To date, 269,102 healthcare workers have been vaccinated.

 Cases update: Global 

• Global cases have surpassed 132.42 million, while the death toll has surpassed 2.87 million; recoveries are at 106.75 million.
• The US has 31.49 million cases, accounting for 24% of global cases; the US death toll is 569,282. 
• India has 12.68 million cases and 165,577 deaths; Brazil has 13.02 million cases and 333,153 deaths.
• India now has the highest daily caseload in the world, with over 100,000 new infections reported yesterday.
• UK PM Boris Johnson has said that restaurants and shops would open again for the first time in four months in England next week.
• The UK ban on foreign travel will however continue; the earliest date for resuming non-essential international travel will be 17 May.
• A further delay could be required if infections continue to surge elsewhere in the world.

Cases update: Africa

• Africa’s Covid-19 cases are at 4.31 million from 4.2 million a week ago; fatalities are at 114,361.
• Morocco has 498,329 reported cases, Nigeria 163,330, Ghana 90,900, Kenya 139,448.

Cases update: South Africa

• SA currently has the 19th highest caseload, at 1.552 million; 452 new cases were reported yesterday. Cases averaged 919 last week from 1,110 reported in the previous week.
• Covid-19 deaths rose by 8 yesterday, to 52,995; 1.478 million people (or 95%) have recovered from the virus.
• Gauteng has the highest number of confirmed cases, at 415,540 (accounting for 26.8% of the total); 10,354 deaths have been reported. 
• The Western Cape has 283,452 (accounting for 18.3% of the total) and 11,472 deaths, while KwaZulu-Natal has 334,547 (accounting for 21.6% of the total) and 10,236 deaths.
• The Eastern Cape has 195,493 cases (accounting for 12,6% of the total) and 11,363 deaths.
• 9.97 million tests have been conducted since 5 March 2020; 11,091 tests were conducted yesterday.

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