South Africa accelerates vaccination campaign

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South Africa’s vaccination campaign is speeding up from today. Healthcare workers and people over 60 can then receive vaccinations with the Pfizer vaccine at 87 sites across the country.

With a new delivery, almost 1 million doses of this are in. By the end of June, there should be 4.5 million. In addition, 2 million doses of the Janssen vaccine are expected, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said. He expects the vaccination rate to increase significantly during this month.

South Africa began delayed vaccination in mid-February after authorities decided not to use the stockpiled AstraZeneca vaccines because they would not work as well against the South African virus variant. Last month, the country temporarily stopped administering the Janssen vaccine due to rare side effects. A decision will be made this week on whether to resume.

The virus has hit South Africa the hardest on the continent, while it lags behind many other African countries in terms of vaccinations. The country of 60 million people has so far vaccinated just under half a million healthcare workers with the Janssen vaccine from pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.

In total, vaccines have been ordered for 46 million South Africans. The country has recorded more than 55,000 coronas deaths and over 1.6 million infections.

More than 4,000 killed again in India

Another 4,106 people have died in India in the past 24 hours from the effects of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health reported today. A day earlier, 4,077 deaths were reported in 24 hours.

The number of infections is slightly lower than on Sunday. Last 24 hours, 281,386 residents of India tested positive for Covid-19, compared to 311,170 on Sunday. In total, nearly 25 million people in India have tested positive for the virus. Two hundred seventy-four thousand three hundred ninety corona patients died. However, experts suspect the actual number is much higher.

Hospitals in the country have been under severe strain since the outbreak of the second wave of the corona. Crematoria and cemeteries are also overloaded.