As the week progresses, the country has racked up three days in a row where the number of new cases for COVID-19 in South Africa has been less than 2 000. That may not sound like a statistic to celebrate, but given the disheartening news we received at the beginning of the week regarding the vaccine rollout, any scraps of good news are needed right now.
Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), 1 742 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections to date to 1 479 253. The department also notes that over 8.53 million tests have been conducted to date, with 1 367 247 recoveries also being recorded.
This translates to a recovery rate of 92 percent, which it has remained steady throughout the week so far.
Unfortunately, however, while the number of cases is remaining relatively low, the number of fatalities has picked. More specifically 396 new deaths have been recorded, with Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng accounting for the majority at 118, 85 and 81 respectively.
The total number of deaths related to COVID-19 in South Africa now sits at 46 869 as a result.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 272 712 | 251 922 | 20 790 | 10 703 |
Eastern Cape | 192 894 | 178 949 | 13 945 | 10 995 |
Northern Cape | 32 684 | 28 429 | 2 859 | 605 |
Free State | 77 797 | 67 021 | 10 776 | 2 896 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 321 886 | 289 731 | 32 155 | 9 176 |
North West | 58 610 | 50 445 | 8 165 | 1 027 |
Mpumalanga | 67 660 | 64 384 | 3 276 | 1 112 |
Gauteng | 395 125 | 380 150 | 14 975 | 8 741 |
Limpopo | 59 885 | 56 216 | 3 669 | 1 614 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 479 253 | 1 367 247 | 112 006 | 46 869 |
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 Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash]