Daily COVID-19 infection numbers remain steady and show no indication of decreasing rapidly.

So far 238 more people had died in South Africa in the last 24-hour period, bringing the death toll to 76,869.

New infections remained in the double digits for the past few days at 13,021 new cases in the last cycle. This brings the total number of confirmed cases since the start of the outbreak to 2,595,447.

SLOWING VACCINATION RATE
The Health Department said on Sunday that only 49,000 COVID-19 vaccines had been administered nationwide in the past 24 hours.

The icy temperatures that have gripped most parts of the country could have discouraged some residents from going out to get their jabs this weekend following reports of a low turnout at vaccination sites.

Gauteng set an ambitious target to administer 100,000 vaccines a day but only about 9,000 residents joined the queue to receive their COVID-19 jab on Saturday with the Western Cape recording just under 4,000 vaccinations.

The lowest turnout, though, was in the Northern Cape with 262.

The Department said it would intensify its drive to encourage those who were eligible to join the vaccination line and bemoaned the number of men refusing to part take in the mass inoculation drive.

While some sectors faced vaccination hesitancy, those between the ages of 18 to 34 were expected to start their vaccination roll out in September.

HIGH GOALS AMID THIRD WAVE PEAK
Western Cape Health authorities aimed to inoculate up to 180,000 residents across 200 vaccination sites by the end of next week.

To date more than 1.4 million COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the province since February.

They said there was capacity to reach a weekly target of 200 000 people by the end of the month.

Authorities called on all eligible groups to get vaccinated before the next phase of the country’s rollout programme kicked off.

Residents were urged to continue adhering to health safety rules and not to let their guards down as a decline in infections remained to be seen.

It was estimated that the province had reached the peak of its third wave with 40,000 active cases.