We are 10 days away from the first anniversary of the country’s hard lockdown as a result of COVID-19 in South Africa. The past year has proved chaotic and testing on several fronts, and while the number of new daily infections appears to be a manageable level, the slow rollout of vaccines leaves us vulnerable to a third and fourth wave of cases.
Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), only 933 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections for the country to 1 530 966. The department also reports that over 9.49 million tests have been conducted to date, along with 1 458 001 recoveries being reported too.
As a result, the recovery rate remains the same as it was the previous day – 95 percent.
The aforementioned number of vaccines administered by the NDoH now sits at 157 286, with no word on when new batches will be entering the country and how quickly the department will be able to move to the second and third phases of the rollout plan.
Unfortunately, the number of new fatalities has increased as well, with 139 deaths related to COVID-19 in South Africa recorded over the past 24 hours. The NDoH confirms that Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal account for the largest number of fatalities, with 57, 29 and 20 registered respectively. The death toll to date has since increased to 51 560.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 280 208 | 263 846 | 16 362 | 11 372 |
Eastern Cape | 194 445 | 182 754 | 11 691 | 11 332 |
Northern Cape | 34 965 | 32 093 | 2 859 | 789 |
Free State | 81 540 | 76206 | 5334 | 3 512 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 332 094 | 316 188 | 15 906 | 9 874 |
North West | 62 246 | 58 837 | 3 409 | 1 323 |
Mpumalanga | 73 087 | 70 856 | 2 231 | 1 304 |
Gauteng | 409 647 | 397 119 | 12 528 | 10 048 |
Limpopo | 62 734 | 60 102 | 2 632 | 2 006 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 530 966 | 1 458 001 | 72 965 | 51 560 |
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