Over the past few days, there has been an increasing number of new fatalities in two regions of the country – the Eastern Cape and Western Cape. Both provinces were among the first two to see a sharp rise in infections for COVID-19 in South Africa when we moved out of a hard lockdown, and with the festive season upon us, they now pose another threat.
As such, it remains to be seen how the spread of COVID-19 can be stopped in those provinces.
Focusing on the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), unfortunately 109 new fatalities have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the county’s total to date to 21 644.
Of the new 109, the NDoH confirms that the Eastern Cape registered 36 and the Western Cape contributed 27. The remainder saw the Free State with 12, Gauteng with five, KwaZulu-Natal with 12 and the North West with 17.
Looking at the other figures in the report, 2 295 new cases have been recorded, with the total number of infections for SA now 792 299. There have also been 732 531 recoveries reported, but for the third day running, no mention of how many tests have been conducted to date.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa, sans updated recoveries and active cases, is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 132 865 | 116 915 | 15 950 | 4 671 |
Eastern Cape | 128 889 | 114 808 | 14 081 | 4 674 |
Northern Cape | 23 213 | 20 684 | 2 859 | 313 |
Free State | 59 058 | 51 196 | 7 862 | 1 931 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 128 152 | 118 312 | 9 840 | 3 355 |
North West | 34 871 | 33 315 | 1 556 | 566 |
Mpumalanga | 31 434 | 30 474 | 960 | 614 |
Gauteng | 235 193 | 229 041 | 6 152 | 5 014 |
Limpopo | 18 624 | 17 786 | 838 | 506 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 792 299 | 732 531 | 59 768 | 21 644 |
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 – United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash]