As the country anxiously awaits its first batch of coronavirus vaccines to arrive, especially as Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize’s advised end of January date is fast approaching. While more news is expected on that front, there are still the daily reports for COVID-19 in South Africa from the National Department of Health (NDoH) to concern ourselves with.
The latest report from the NDoH is relatively promising given the high number of new daily infections in recent weeks, with 6 041 infections being recorded over the past 24 hours. This pushes the total number of infections to date to 1 423 578, with 1 254 674 recoveries also being recorded and leading to a recovery rate of 88 percent presently.
While that is indeed good news, unfortunately there has been a spike in the number of fatalities compared to yesterday, with 680 deaths being reported by the NDoH. KwaZulu-Natal accounts for new 50 percent of the new fatalities, with 306 reported from the coastal province. The spike has seen the number of fatalities related to the pandemic rise to 41 797.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 266 029 | 233 798 | 32 231 | 9 996 |
Eastern Cape | 190 833 | 177 388 | 13 445 | 10 223 |
Northern Cape | 31 154 | 26 178 | 2 859 | 553 |
Free State | 74 413 | 62 240 | 12 173 | 2 671 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 306 234 | 251 871 | 54 363 | 7 738 |
North West | 55 238 | 40 473 | 14 765 | 877 |
Mpumalanga | 61 386 | 55 477 | 5 909 | 896 |
Gauteng | 382 907 | 357 997 | 24 910 | 7 816 |
Limpopo | 55 384 | 49 252 | 6 132 | 1 027 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 423 578 | 1 254 674 | 168 904 | 41 797 |
As always, in order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:
- Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
- COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
- World Health Organisation
- SA Coronavirus website
- SA Government
- SA Presidency
[Image – Photo by Hakan Nural on Unsplash]