With a little over two weeks before festive season breaks kick in for everyone, the looming threat of a second wave of infections for COVID-19 in South Africa remains. Already, the government has outlined hotspots in the country and strongly advised against any super spreader events during the festive period.
Whether those warnings will be heeded is unclear for now, but we do have the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) to look at in the interim. Said report confirms that 4 011 new cases have been reported over the past 24 hours, resulting in the total number of infections for SA to date sitting at 821 889.
The department has also noted that more than 5.64 million tests have been conducted to date, with 753 072 recoveries having been totalled too. The latter figure translates to a recovery rate of 91.62 percent.
Unfortunately 183 new fatalities have been recorded as well over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of deaths related to COVID-19 in South Africa to 22 432. Once again the Eastern Cape and Western Cape make up the largest portions of the 183, with 82 and 50 respectively.
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 | 142 376 | 121 417 | 20 959 | 4 870 |
| Eastern Cape | 139 055 | 126 012 | 13 043 | 5 060 |
| Northern Cape | 23 488 | 21 016 | 2 859 | 333 |
| Free State | 59 417 | 53 068 | 6 349 | 2 015 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 132 607 | 119 413 | 13 194 | 3 406 |
| North West | 35 145 | 33 834 | 1 311 | 566 |
| Mpumalanga | 31 819 | 30 802 | 1 017 | 617 |
| Gauteng | 239 099 | 229 547 | 9 552 | 5 053 |
| Limpopo | 18 883 | 17 963 | 920 | 512 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 821 889 | 753 072 | 68 817 | 22 432 |
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 JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash]
