This past weekend was Valentine’s Day. It was also the first time that the globally recognised holiday was spent under lockdown, which proved a peculiar situation for those who wanted to spend tome with loved ones, but could not. As such, we’re hoping it is the first and last time something like this needs to happen as we continue to fight the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa.
Looking at the latest figures from the National Department of Health (NDoH), the numbers are remaining relatively steady, but still a bit too high for some.
To that end 1 744 new cases have been reported over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections recorded to date for the country to 1 491 807. The report also confirms that 1 388 321 recoveries have also been recorded, pushing the recovery rate up to 93 percent.
Unfortunately, however, 78 new fatalities were also reported over the past 24 hours. While this is one of the lowest total recorded in recent weeks, any loss of life is regrettable, and this latest addition sees the number of deaths related to COVID-19 in South Africa climb to 47 899.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 274 513 | 255 049 | 19 464 | 10 840 |
| Eastern Cape | 193 334 | 180 686 | 12 648 | 11 105 |
| Northern Cape | 33 105 | 28 803 | 2 859 | 621 |
| Free State | 78 658 | 68 180 | 10 478 | 2 990 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 324 754 | 296 639 | 28 115 | 9 313 |
| North West | 59 428 | 52 999 | 6 429 | 1 027 |
| Mpumalanga | 68 768 | 65 869 | 2 899 | 1 189 |
| Gauteng | 398 506 | 382 662 | 15 844 | 9 181 |
| Limpopo | 60 741 | 57 454 | 3 287 | 1 633 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 1 491 807 | 1 388 341 | 103 466 | 47 899 |
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 Markus Winkler on Unsplash]
