This weekend, most South Africans will be bracing themselves for the impact of loadshedding, according to the latest update from Eskom. Added to this is the continued fight against the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa, which has seen the total number of cases for the country rise to 633 015.
This after the National Department of Health (NDoH) recorded an additional 2 420 cases over the past 24 hours.
As has been the case since the country moved to lockdown level 3 a couple of months ago, Gauteng contributes the largest percentage of the new infections, accounting for 33.4 percent. This is followed KwaZulu-Natal at 18 percent and the Western Cape with 16.8 percent.
Along with the number of cases, the number of fatalities too has risen, with 174 reported by the NDoH over the past 24 hours.
This brings the total to 14 563, with the department noting that of the 174, 39 are from KwaZulu-Natal, 50 from Gauteng, 24 from the Eastern Cape, eight from the Free State, 17 from the Western Cape, nine from the North West and 27 from Mpumalanga.
Still the country’s recovery rate continues to climb steadily. The NDoH says that 554 887 have been reported to date, which translates to a recovery rate of 88 percent.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Province | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 106 582 | 98 047 | 8 535 | 3 946 |
| Eastern Cape | 86 489 | 82 233 | 4 256 | 2 956 |
| Northern Cape | 11 313 | 7 526 | 2 859 | 134 |
| Free State | 38 869 | 26 056 | 12 813 | 739 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 114 034 | 100 756 | 13 278 | 2 203 |
| North West | 25 816 | 20 028 | 5 788 | 275 |
| Mpumalanga | 24 746 | 23 046 | 1 700 | 378 |
| Gauteng | 211 678 | 184 538 | 27 140 | 3 730 |
| Limpopo | 13 488 | 12 647 | 841 | 202 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 633 015 | 554 877 | 78 138 | 14 563 |
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 Mika Baumeister on Unsplash]
