On Dec. 9, South Africa reported nearly 20,000 new COVID-19 cases, a new record since the Omicron variant was identified. It’s currently unknown how many of those cases were caused by Omicron, since only limited testing has been done. Reuters reported that “the statistics from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases brought the confirmed number of cases in the country to 3.071 million, with more than 90,000 COVID-linked deaths since the pandemic started.”
Assuming that every person needs two doses of the vaccine, South Africa has received enough doses to vaccinate only about 23% of its population. At the current rate, it would take almost three more months to bring that up by 10%, reported Reuters. About 18 of the 54 nations of Africa–about one-third–have vaccinated less than 10 people per 100.
In Russia, on Dec. 12, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported 29,929 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, which is the highest since Oct. 13.
