While many people in the country celebrated Valentine’s Day yesterday, the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) makes for grim reading as far as the number of newly recorded fatalities for COVID-19 in South Africa is concerned.

To that end, the number of newly recorded deaths has shot up dramatically from the previous day to 257. It is unclear if this recent rise is the result of the ongoing audit process that the NDoH is under, but the increase is a little concerning.

As such, the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa has climbed to 97 250.

Contrastingly, the NDoH report shows that the number of new cases is relatively low, with 1 094 recorded. The total number of infections recorded to date now sits at 3 642 905.

As for other key statistics in the report, the recovery rate has increased slightly to 96.3 percent with 3 508 249 recoveries reported. The department also notes that more than 22.69 million tests have been completed to date.

Shifting to the vaccine rollout, which is still trying to pick up momentum in the new year, the past 24 hours has seen 63 764 jabs administered. As of 17:00 on 14th February 2022, a total of 30 627 415 vaccines administered across the country, but only half of that figure representing the number of fully vaccinated people in SA.

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

• 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 Justin Schwartfigure on Unsplash]