As we get ready for the weekend, the National Department of Health (NDoH) has recorded yet another concerning batch of statistics regarding COVID-19 in South Africa over the past 24 hours. This as 22 910 cases and 460 fatalities have been recorded as the delta variant of the virus continues to wreck havoc during this third wave of infections.
It therefore does not bode well come 11th July, when President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation once again after the two weeks of adjusted level 4 lockdown was earmarked to end.
Over the past few days, instead of flattening the curve on COVID-19, the situation has gotten worse.
That said, the department appears to be patting itself on the back for surpassing the four million mark in terms of the vaccine rollout. While ramping up efforts is good, it should be noted that the NDoH initially targeted five million people by the end of June, so we are well behind the pace in terms of reaching population immunity.
As for the rest of the figures in the report, the total number of cases for COVID-19 in South Africa has since climbed to 2 135 246, while the death toll has reached 63 499. The recovery rate is now 87.2 percent and over 13.69 million tests have been conducted to date.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 340 496 | 303 168 | 24 512 | 12 816 |
| Eastern Cape | 211 852 | 194 258 | 5 556 | 12 038 |
| Northern Cape | 61 044 | 54 634 | 4 967 | 1 443 |
| Free State | 118 595 | 100 615 | 12 639 | 5 341 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 365 442 | 336 956 | 17 655 | 10 831 |
| North West | 106 251 | 83 229 | 20 487 | 2 535 |
| Mpumalanga | 103 031 | 92 175 | 9 321 | 1 535 |
| Gauteng | 741 164 | 624 174 | 102 857 | 14 133 |
| Limpopo | 87 371 | 73 691 | 10 853 | 2 827 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 2 135 246 | 1 862 900 | 208 847 | 63 499 |
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 Steward Masweneng on Unsplash]
