Daily Podcast – August 23, 2021

23rd August 2021 By: Thabi Shomolekae - Creamer Media Senior Writer

Daily Podcast  – August 23, 2021

President Cyril Ramaphosa

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.

Making headlines: Ramaphosa impressed with determination of youth to get vaccinated; SA records 10 748 new cases as death toll climbs by 170; And, Microsite launched to detect adverse effects of vaccination

 

Ramaphosa impressed with determination of youth to get vaccinated

President Cyril Ramaphosa directly addressed the country’s youth, expressing his pride at seeing them turning out in their numbers on Friday to get vaccinated.

The Department of Health opened the registration and Covid-19 vaccination for people aged 18 to 34, on Friday. This was brought forward from the initial opening date of September 1.

Over half a million South Africans enrolled on the day that registration for over 18s opened.

Ramaphosa said young people were providing hope that an end to the hard times, brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, was within reach.

 

SA records 10 748 new cases as death toll climbs by 170

South Africa recorded 10 748 new confirmed Covid-19 cases and 170 deaths, taking the death toll to 79 421.

The country recorded more than 2.69-million laboratory-confirmed cases.

Gauteng is the most impacted, with more than 889 000 confirmed cases, followed by the Western Cape with more than 446 000 and KwaZulu-Natal with more than 454 000.

 

And, Microsite launched to detect adverse effects of vaccination

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority is launching a microsite with the Department of Health, where all reports of adverse events following immunisation will be communicated to the public.

Data on the new site will be two weeks behind and updates will be loaded weekly.

Since the official national roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines on May 17, Sahpra had received 1 473 reports of adverse effects by July 31.

Sahpra says most of the adverse effects were mild, non-serious and already listed in the internationally-approved product information.

These included mild headache, pain and redness at the injection site and mild fever.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter [@Polity ZA]