As we reach the end of July, South Africa’s fight against the spread of COVID-19 shows no signs of improving. This as the National Department of Health (NDoH) registered 315 new fatalities over the past 24 hours. This brings the total to date to 7 812, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize confirmed last night.

Looking at the number of newly recorded deaths per province, the minister provided the following breakdown, with 121 deaths reported in the Eastern Cape, 96 in Gauteng, 55 in KwaZulu-Natal, 34 in the Western Cape and nine in the North West.

As has been the case in recent weeks, the number of new infections also climbed past the 10k mark over the past 24 hours, this time recorded at 11 046 new positive cases. The dispersement of cases still sees Gauteng, the Western Cape and Eastern Cape make up the top three, with 50 cases yet to be allocated by the NDoH for some time now.

Precisely why this is the case, remains to be seen.

With infections rising, it appears as if the NDoH is also ramping up its testing efforts, with the only glimmer of hope currently being the steady rise in the recovery rate.

To that end, Mkhize says 309 601 people have recovered since the pandemic reached South Africa. This translates to a recovery rate of 64 percent, with a total of 2 918 049 tests having been conducted. As for recent testing, 44 886 have been done in the last 24 hours, according to the department.

The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:

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 Anshu A on Unsplash]