Vaccination against the new coronavirus.
Durban — According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) KwaZulu-Natal recorded the lowest rate of fully vaccinated persons against Covid-19. Currently there is a new variant called EG.5 – also known as Eris.
However, EWN reported that Professor Ramneek Ahluwalia of Higher Health said there was no need to panic.
Ahluwalia said the Eris was a sub-variant of Omicron, which caused the fourth wave in SA. Omicron has been mutating quite rapidly, forming various types of sub-variants. Furthermore, the Department of Health has urged the Citizens to get vaccinated.
The spokesperson for the department confirmed that there was a case of Eris in Gauteng.
Furthermore, statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said nationally, 47.1% of individuals aged 12 and older were fully vaccinated, some with booster shots. “Another 6.9% were partially vaccinated. The highest full vaccination rate was recorded in the Free State (58.8%) and Western Cape (56.7%) and the lowest in KwaZulu-Natal (35.8%),” said Maluleke.
He added that Limpopo had the highest rate of partially vaccinated individuals with 12% and Mpumalanga 8.8% and lowest in Western Cape 4.4% and KwaZulu-Natal 4.6%.
In his report Maluleke said the full vaccination in 2022 was most common among white people with 65.8% and Indian/Asian was 62.8% aged 12 and older, and at least common among black Africans 44.5% and coloureds 49%.
He added that in the first quarter 24.3% of persons aged 60 and older were not vaccinated at all, compared with 50.1% of persons aged 18-34 years and 69.1% aged 12-17.
Maluleke added that fully vaccinated persons aged 12 and older were most common in Nelson Mandela Bay with 59% and Cape Town 58.7%, and most uncommon in eThekwini at 29.6% and Tshwane 37.8%.
“The percentage of fully or partially vaccinated persons aged 12 and older in metros 53.3% trailed the national percentage to 54% by 0.7 percentage points,” said Maluleke.
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