As we enter another weekend under lockdown, uncertainty persists with regard to the country’s vaccine rollout as there have been no updates since the National Department of Health (NDoH) chose to suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson single jab vaccines. While the frustrating wait continues, we still have to contend with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa.
According to the latest report from the NDoH, the total number of cases recorded to date now sits at 1 562 931. This as 1 372 new infections have been recorded over the past 24 hours.
The department also confirms that over 10.25 million tests have been conducted to date, 1 488 060 recoveries have been recorded thus far. The latter translates to a recovery rate of 95 percent, which has remained at that level for a few weeks now.
As for other key metrics like vaccines, there has of course been no movement over the past two days since the suspension was announced. As such the number of vaccines administered to date currently sits at 292 623.
Unfortunately 73 new fatalities have also been reported by the NDoH, with the department confirming that KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape account for the most new deaths at 20, 16 and 13 respectively. As a result, the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa has increased to 53 571.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 284 743 | 268 440 | 16 303 | 11 523 |
Eastern Cape | 195 762 | 184 081 | 11 681 | 11 423 |
Northern Cape | 37 500 | 33 765 | 2 859 | 843 |
Free State | 85 278 | 79 732 | 5 546 | 3 764 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 335 488 | 319 851 | 15 637 | 10 315 |
North West | 65 410 | 61 756 | 3 654 | 1 580 |
Mpumalanga | 76 693 | 74 276 | 2 417 | 1 377 |
Gauteng | 418 540 | 405 188 | 13 352 | 10 495 |
Limpopo | 63 517 | 60 971 | 2 546 | 2 251 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 562 931 | 1 488 060 | 74 871 | 53 571 |
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 Brian McGowan on Unsplash]