This week the country has moved to alert level 1 lockdown. While the easing of restrictions have been welcomed by many, it still remains to be seen what impact this will have on COVID-19 in South Africa, especially as we have a few public holidays on the horizon with the Easter weekend next month.
As such, the predictions of an impending third wave may indeed be on the way, with the second wave the country experience during December and January tied to the festive celebrations during that period.
For now, all we can do is adhere to the regulations as best as possible, and hope the National Department of Health (NDoH) can ramp up its vaccine rollout. In the interim, we only have the latest report from the department to look at, which saw 1 447 new cases being recorded over the past 24 hours as the total number of infections for SA to date climbs to 1 516 262.
The recovery rate remains the same as it was yesterday, 94.6 percent, with 1 434 772 recoveries recorded to date.
Unfortunately 94 new fatalities have also been reported by the NDoH, pushing the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa so far to 50 366.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 278 092 | 261 025 | 17 067 | 11 225 |
Eastern Cape | 193 982 | 182 404 | 11 578 | 11 305 |
Northern Cape | 34 118 | 31 389 | 2 859 | 694 |
Free State | 80 265 | 70 802 | 9 463 | 3 298 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 329 666 | 310 452 | 19 214 | 9 698 |
North West | 61 184 | 57 450 | 3 734 | 1 203 |
Mpumalanga | 71 405 | 69 029 | 2 376 | 1 269 |
Gauteng | 405 463 | 392 976 | 12 487 | 9 770 |
Limpopo | 62 087 | 59 245 | 2 842 | 1 904 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 516 262 | 1 434 772 | 81 490 | 50 366 |
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 Matthias Heyde on Unsplash]