The past 24 hours for COVID-19 in South Africa, as far as newly shared statistics are concerned, look far more promising than we have seen in recent weeks. This as 7 209 new cases have been recorded, which is a significant amount less than have been recorded during July to date.
Whether that is a result of the country lessening the spread of the virus, fewer people being outdoors following the riots or simply less citizens wanting to brave the cold weather to get tested, is unclear for now.
While the number of new infections is lower, the newly recorded fatalities is not, with 221 deaths being reported by the National Department of Health (NDoH). The death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa has risen to 67 080 as a result. As such the delta variant of the virus remains as a serious concern, both in terms of the volatility with which it spreads and how quickly it can take a life.
Looking at the rest of the key statistics in the latest report, the total number of infections recorded to date is now 2 302 304, with over 14.26 million tests have been conducted so far. The recovery rate now sits at 89.9 percent as 2 069 085 recoveries have been reported.
As for the vaccine rollout, 223 969 vaccines have been administered over the past 24 hours, with the total number of jabs given out as of 17:00 on 19th July reported as 5 328 110 by the NDoH.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 365 847 | 319 202 | 32 714 | 13 931 |
| Eastern Cape | 219 057 | 201 106 | 5 606 | 12 345 |
| Northern Cape | 63 582 | 57 215 | 4 831 | 1 536 |
| Free State | 123 412 | 105 865 | 12 035 | 5 512 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 376 398 | 347 994 | 17 354 | 11 050 |
| North West | 118 031 | 91 562 | 23 774 | 2 695 |
| Mpumalanga | 114 667 | 104 608 | 8 469 | 1 590 |
| Gauteng | 818 859 | 751 803 | 51 574 | 15 482 |
| Limpopo | 102 451 | 89 730 | 9 782 | 2 939 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 2 302 304 | 2 069 085 | 166 139 | 67 080 |
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]
