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On March 6, 2021, confirmed cases of coronavirus COVID-19 on a single day in South Africa amounted to 8,078. Total cases reached 3,684,319, which is the highest number of confirmed cases compared to other African countries. As of the same date, there were 99,543 casualties and 3,560,217 recoveries in the country.

The most affected country in the continent

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the continent, starting in Egypt on February 14, 2020, South Africa has been harshly affected, quickly becoming the worst-hit country in Africa. Gauteng, the province with Johannesburg as its capital, was the most affected regionally with over 1.2 million cases as of early March, 2022. As well as its health effects, the pandemic had a strong impact on businesses with nine out of ten businesses operating in different industries claiming that the turnover was below the normal range they used to receive as of April 2020.

Vaccination efforts

Countries around the world are racing to get their populations vaccinated to be able to go back to normal. As the fourth wave hits South Africa in December 2021, and as the different stronger variants emerge, the country is also trying to vaccinate its population faster to minimize the severe health effects. After facing a harsh start to its vaccination program due to the ineffectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the Beta variant also known as B.1.351, on May 17, 2021, South Africa began the second phase of its vaccination program, opening it for people who are 60 and over. Previously, the so-called Sisonke Program was rolled out as the first phase to ensure the vaccination of the health workers protecting them from the pandemic. As of March 6, 2022, Gauteng was the region with the highest number of vaccinated individuals followed by Western Cape with around 9.02 million and five million inoculations, respectively.