The latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) on COVID-19 in South Africa is a little confusing. This as instead of the usual mix of a written statement along with an infographic, we only have the latter to serve as confirmation regarding the latest statistics on the spread of the virus.
Added to this, the NDoH Twitter account links to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) for the latest statistics on COVID-19, instead of its own site, which has been the case for the past year.
Whether Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize’s special leave has seen standards slipping at the department is unclear, but given that the country is in the midst of a third wave of infections, the patching together of information from different sources is less than ideal.
So what are the latest numbers?
According to the NICD, the total number of infections recorded to date now sits at 1 752 630, with over 12.22 million tests having been conducted to date. As for the recovery rate, the NDoH says it is currently 91.9 percent, with 1 611 447 recoveries reported.
There is also a disparity in terms of fatalities related to COVID-19 in South Africa, with the NDoH stating that the the total to date is 57 879 while the NICD has reported a higher figure at 57 884. This therefore brings into question whether the department’s infographic that indicates 114 new fatalities in the past 24 hours is indeed accurate.
The same goes for the vaccine rollout, with the last numbers only available from 23:59 on 13th June. As such we have no idea what the second phase of the Sisonke Protocol rollout has mustered over the past 24 hours. To that end the total number of vaccines administered to date still remains at 1 777 2 88, with 1 297 520 of these being the first dose of Pfizer vaccine.
While we acknowledge that the NDoH is under a lot of pressure to handle the impact of COVID-19 in South Africa as best it can, without accurate and thorough dissemination of figures each day, it leaves the door open for misinformation to spread. We trust that today’s reports were simply an anomaly and tomorrow will see the normal resumption of service.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 301 589 | 282 234 | 1 996 | 11 962 |
Eastern Cape | 200 147 | 186 849 | 210 | 11 702 |
Northern Cape | 54 895 | 45 325 | 3 554 | 1 266 |
Free State | 107 433 | 93 245 | 2 398 | 4 577 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 343 636 | 326 824 | 5 041 | 10 562 |
North West | 82 355 | 71 178 | 2 881 | 2 109 |
Mpumalanga | 85 934 | 82 275 | 991 | 1 481 |
Gauteng | 509 053 | 459 891 | 3 231 | 11 720 |
Limpopo | 67 588 | 63 626 | 295 | 2 500 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 752 630 | 1 611 447 | 20 597 | 57 879 |
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 Markus Spiske on Unsplash]