Earlier this week we saw the number of newly recorded fatalities related to COVID-19 in South Africa shoot up significantly compared to previous days.

While we had thought figures had evened out, the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) shows another surge. This as the past 24 hours has seen 435 fatalities recorded, which nearly doubles the spike we saw earlier in the week.

For those thinking that the rapid rise is due to the ongoing audit that the NDoH is experiencing, the department explains that only a fraction of the latest numbers have been collected over the past two days.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 435 deaths and of these, 17 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 97,955 to date,” an attached note to the NDoH daily report explains.

As such, it still looks as if we are struggling to shake off the impact of the fourth wave of infections, which could be linked to a recent easing of restrictions and a lack of desire for people to get vaccinated.

Speaking of which, the past 24 hours has seen 73 097 jabs administered, with a total of 30 858 874 vaccines given out as of 17:00 on 17th February 2022.

Looking at the other key figures in the NDoH report, the recovery rate remains at 96.3 percent, while more than 22.79 million tests have been done to date.

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 Bud Nug on Unsplash]