The daily number of infections for COVID-19 in South Africa continue to rise. While the entire country is not in the midst of a third wave, a handful of provinces have begun to see a significant spike in cases and fatalities.
Consequently, the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) confirms that 5 074 new cases have been reported over the past 24 hours, which is nearly double the number of infections we normally see after a weekend.
The result sees the total number of infections recorded in SA to date climb to 1 696 564, with over 11.87 million tests having been conducted so far.
As for phase two of the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout, 1 343 433 vaccines have been administered to date, with 863 665 of these being the first dose of Pfizer vaccine and requiring citizens to receive a second jab 42 days after the first.
As such, the desired population immunity is still some ways off from becoming a reality, which means adherence to lockdown regulations is more important than ever.
Looking at the other key figures in the latest report, the recovery rate has dropped again slightly to 93 percent, with 1 578 033 recoveries recorded to date by the NDoH. Unfortunately the department has also recorded 45 new fatalities over the past 24 hours. Of the new 45, the Free State accounts for 16, the Northern Cape has 15 and Gauteng contributes seven.
This sees the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa increase to 56 974.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 296 402 | 279 935 | 1 996 | 11 863 |
| Eastern Cape | 198 695 | 185 880 | 210 | 11 672 |
| Northern Cape | 52 832 | 42 421 | 3 554 | 1 162 |
| Free State | 104 073 | 90 502 | 2 398 | 4 452 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 341 023 | 325 295 | 5 041 | 10 534 |
| North West | 78 836 | 69 693 | 2 881 | 1 949 |
| Mpumalanga | 83 933 | 80 596 | 991 | 1 459 |
| Gauteng | 474 484 | 441 008 | 3 231 | 11 411 |
| Limpopo | 66 286 | 62 703 | 295 | 2 472 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 1 696 564 | 1 578 033 | 20 597 | 56 974 |
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 Steven Cornfield on Unsplash]
