How to keep track of the COVID-19 vaccine stats in South Africa

As South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to reach more people, the question is no longer about who can get vaccinated, but how many people have been vaccinated in South Africa.

Luckily, the data is easily accessible online through a few tools.

Here’s a guide on how to keep track of COVID-19 vaccine stats and updates online.

COVID-19 vaccine stats in South Africa: How to keep track with Google

Google is probably one of the easiest ways to keep track of COVID-19 vaccine stats and updates if you just want a quick overview.

You can simply enter the search term “covid vaccine South Africa” or “vaccine South Africa” and Google will give you an interactive dashboard. You can select the “Statistics” tab to access a visual graph.

There are also figures for worldwide vaccination figures, figures for different countries, and figures for South Africa.

You can select different tabs for information on the latest news, along with information on whether you can get a booster shot in the country.

Here is a link to the Google COVID-19 dashboard for South Africa for ease of use.

The search engine has a similar tool for keeping track of COVID-19 cases in South Africa.

Vaccine stats in South Africa per province

If you want a more detailed look at vaccine statistics in the country, you can use the vaccine updates portal on the SA COVID-19 Online Resource & News Portal.

The website has a page dedicated to the latest vaccine statistics.

The stats include data captured on the EVDS within the last 24 hours, with vaccination records captured on paper added later. The site updates the data daily between 6pm and 7pm according to the site.

The data is much more detailed than that provided on the Google dashboard. You can see data by province, by sector (i.e. private vs public), the specific vaccines administered, and population groups.

On certain slides, you can also filter the data according to certain periods, provinces, and age groups.

While most of the statistics relate to the adult population, you can also find a slide that provides data on individuals aged 12-17.

Other ways to keep track

There are also other ways to keep track of the vaccine statistics if you’re not looking for in-depth data.

The easiest way is to follow the Department of Health on Twitter.

Yebo! As of yesterday more than 23 million vaccine doses have been administered. Danko SA #VaccinateToSaveSouthAfrica #VaccineRollOutSA #COVID19 #vaccinated pic.twitter.com/PH87NM2eLd

— Department of Health (@HealthZA) November 6, 2021

While the department shares other updates as well, it also shares milestones in vaccination rates.

The department also has a WhatsApp account that you can message to sign up for updates and news. If you message the account with “cases”, it will tell you how many vaccines have been administered locally.

But this summary doesn’t provide a percentage or breakdown for the total vaccinated population. It does, however, provide a link to the government information portal for more information.

You can add the government WhatsApp support line using the number 0600-123456.

Read more: How to get your digital COVID-19 vaccine certificate

Feature image: Mat Napo/Unsplash