It has been a week since President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation regarding COVID-19 in South Africa.
As there have been no new updates at the time of writing, it remains to be seen what level of lockdown the country will be at when offices close and people are on holiday for the festive season.
As such, it is unclear if we will have as stressful a festive period as last year due to the newly discovered Omicron variant of the virus that is spreading locally.
For now though, the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), continues to show a sharp rise in the number of infections, with 11 125 recorded in the past 24 hours. This sees the country surpass the three million mark for recorded infections to date, which is now 3 031 694.
As for fatalities, only one has been reported in the past 24 hours, so it remains to be seen what impact the Omicron variant will have in terms of loss of life. At the moment, the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa sits at 89 966.
The recovery rate has dropped to 94.3 percent as a result, with more than 19.76 million tests having been conducted to date.
Looking at the vaccine rollout, which is a key priority for the government currently, 22 145 jabs have been administered in the past 24 hours. As of 17:00 on 5th December, a total of 26 348 830 vaccines have been administered across the country.
The full outlook for COVID-19 in South Africa follows on below:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 522 578 | 496 549 | 5 777 | 20 252 |
| Eastern Cape | 294 346 | 277 984 | 1 145 | 15 217 |
| Northern Cape | 93 703 | 90 508 | 792 | 2 403 |
| Free State | 166 869 | 157 252 | 2 519 | 7 098 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 522 286 | 500 111 | 7 378 | 14 797 |
| North West | 157 000 | 148 609 | 4 037 | 4 354 |
| Mpumalanga | 156 594 | 151 492 | 3 084 | 2 018 |
| Gauteng | 992 410 | 917 199 | 55 492 | 19 719 |
| Limpopo | 125 908 | 118 440 | 3 360 | 4 108 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 3 031 694 | 2 858 144 | 83 584 | 89 966 |
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 Pam Menegakis on Unsplash]
