Perhaps unsurprisingly, following its announcement that stage 2 loadshedding would escalated to stage 4 this week, much of the focus locally is on our failing power utility. While issues on that front look increasingly worse, the current outlook for COVID-19 in South Africa is far more positive.

This as the latest numbers from the National Department of Health show no signs for concern regarding the spread of the virus at this stage. To that the report notes that only 116 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours, as the total number of infections to date rises to 2 924 072.

The department also notes that 20 fatalities have been reported too, as the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa now sits at 89 352.

As for other key figures, the recovery rate remains as it did yesterday at 96.4 percent, while over 18.74 million tests have been conducted to date.

Looking at the vaccine rollout, turnout to vaccination sites is a little low, with 102 433 jabs administered in the past 24 hours. Given that we are predicted to hit a fourth wave of infections in late November/early December, vaccinating the country is a top priority.

As of 17:00 on 8th November, a total of 23 264 992 vaccines have been administered, with an estimated 12 934 946 people fully vaccinated at this stage.

The full outlook for COVID-19 in South Africa follows on below:

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:

• 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 Julio López on Unsplash]