The country has a new date to keep in mind as far as the start of the vaccine rollout once again, which should be up and running by the middle of May. While we wait for more news on that front, our vigilance in fighting the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa cannot waver.
Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), the number of new daily cases remains at a manageable level and without tempting fate, there are no signs at this stage of a third wave of infections. To that end, 853 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours.
This has pushed the total number of infections recorded to date to 1 568 366, with the department also noting that over 10.37 million tests have been conducted so far.
The recovery rate remains at 95 percent, as it has done for a number of weeks now, with the current amount of recoveries registered at 1 494 630 by the NDoH.
While those latest statistics are relatively positive, unfortunately 130 new fatalities have been recorded over the past 24 hours, which is the one of the largest totals reported in recent weeks.
Of the new 130, the department confirms that the Eastern Cape has 11, the Free State has seven, Gauteng contributes 11, KwaZulu-Natal has five, Limpopo has five, Mpumalanga accounts for three, the North West has a concerning 34, the Northern Cape attributes 13 and the Western Cape accounts for the most at 41.
The result sees the death toll related to COVID-19 rise to 53 887.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 285 388 | 271 735 | 13 653 | 11 572 |
Eastern Cape | 195 878 | 184 212 | 11 666 | 11 465 |
Northern Cape | 38 183 | 33 954 | 2 859 | 871 |
Free State | 86 202 | 80 205 | 5 997 | 3 792 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 335 850 | 319 922 | 15 928 | 10 341 |
North West | 66 023 | 61 756 | 4 267 | 1 666 |
Mpumalanga | 77 166 | 74 924 | 2 242 | 1 388 |
Gauteng | 420 068 | 406 828 | 13 240 | 10 536 |
Limpopo | 63 608 | 61 094 | 2 514 | 2 256 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 568 366 | 1 494 630 | 73 736 | 53 887 |
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 Marjan Blan | @marjanblan on Unsplash]