Last night Finance Minister Tito Mboweni presented his 2021 budget speech, with much of the planned spending this year dedicated to relief efforts in and around areas impacted by the pandemic. It places the latest figures surrounding COVID-19 in South Africa into sharper focus, with the lower numbers recorded at the begging of the week all but gone.
This as 1 862 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, which is nearly double that of the previous day. The result sees the total number of cases recorded to date by the National Department of Health (NDoH) reach 1 507 448.
It is perhaps a good thing then, that Mboweni confirmed a R9 billion injection for the country’s COVID-19 vaccine securing and rollout.
Looking at some of the other figures in the latest report, over 8.96 million tests have been conducted to date, with 1 422 622 recoveries also being recorded. This translates to a recovery rate of 94 percent, which is the same as the previous day.
Unfortunately, however, 110 new fatalities were also reported by the NDoH, with the Free State accounting for the majority at 61. This sees the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa climb to 49 523.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 276 746 | 259 149 | 17 597 | 11 102 |
Eastern Cape | 193 773 | 182 074 | 11 699 | 11 269 |
Northern Cape | 33 705 | 30 750 | 2 859 | 664 |
Free State | 79 641 | 69 709 | 9 932 | 3 195 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 327 760 | 308 491 | 19 269 | 9 539 |
North West | 60 541 | 56 260 | 4 281 | 1 126 |
Mpumalanga | 70 511 | 67 983 | 2 528 | 1 241 |
Gauteng | 403 074 | 389 529 | 13 545 | 9 547 |
Limpopo | 61 697 | 58 677 | 3 020 | 1 840 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 507 448 | 1 422 622 | 84 826 | 49 523 |
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 Sincerely Media on Unsplash]