It is the beginning of a new month under stricter lockdown regulations, with a cold front currently impacting the country and the threat of continued loadshedding looming. This all while the country continues to fight the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa, along with with trying to ramp up its vaccine rollout efforts.
It is therefore one of the most crucial months as far as the country’s hopes to return to normal after more than a year of the pandemic.
Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) sans infographic, 2 792 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours as the total number of infections recorded to date climbs to 1 665 617.
The NDoH has also confirmed that over 11.6 million tests have been conducted to date, while refraining to declare the country being in the midst of a third wave of infections, despite four provinces seeing a significant uptick in new daily cases.
As for the vaccine rollout, 970 448 vaccines have been administered to date, with 490 680 of these being the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, requiring a second dose within the next six weeks.
Unfortunately 67 new fatalities have been recorded over the past 24 hours, with Gauteng, Limpopo and the Free State accounting for 17, 15 and 13 respectively. The Northern Cape also contributes 11, as these four provinces have all seen the aforementioned uptick in new infections. As a result, the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa has increased to 56 506.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 293 794 | 278 265 | 1 996 | 11 811 |
| Eastern Cape | 197 801 | 185 278 | 210 | 11 661 |
| Northern Cape | 50 763 | 41 387 | 3 554 | 1 112 |
| Free State | 101 384 | 88 668 | 2 398 | 4 342 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 339 888 | 325 116 | 5 041 | 10 510 |
| North West | 76 006 | 67 386 | 2 881 | 1 933 |
| Mpumalanga | 82 508 | 79 522 | 991 | 1 452 |
| Gauteng | 458 072 | 431 451 | 3 231 | 11 224 |
| Limpopo | 65 401 | 62 264 | 295 | 2 461 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 1 665 617 | 1 559 337 | 20 597 | 56 506 |
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 Kojo Kwarteng on Unsplash]
