The past 24 hours have given the National Department of Health (NDoH) cause for optimism in its fight to lessen the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa. This as 5 377 new infections have been recorded over the past 24 hours, which marks one of the lowest new case figures in quite some time.
This follows the 8 195 recorded yesterday, but it remains to be seen if this recent downturn is just an anomaly or signs that the curve is indeed flattening.
For interest, 4 523 new cases on 23rd June is the lowest figure recorded since the second wave of cases hit South Africa when the country went to lockdown level 3.
While the smaller amount of new infections is cause for optimism, the NDoH confirms that 173 more fatalities have been registered, bringing the total to 8 539 since the pandemic reached South Africa.
Looking at each province, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize noted that of the 173 fatalities, 45 are from Mpumalanga, 37 from Gauteng, 31 from the Western Cape, 28 from the North West, 20 from the Eastern Cape and 12 from KwaZulu-Natal.
As far as infections go for each province, not much has changed there, with Gauteng and the Western Cape leading all others. The Highveld is ahead by quite some margin, however, nearly doubling the number of infections of the Cape.
To that end, the NDoH says Gauteng has 181 946 cases and the Western Cape has 97 076 infections.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Province | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 97 076 | 81 313 | 15 763 | 3 148 |
Eastern Cape | 79 674 | 70 074 | 9 600 | 1 789 |
Northern Cape | 5 302 | 2 381 | 2 921 | 36 |
Free State | 23 705 | 10 149 | 13 556 | 205 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 84 361 | 44 266 | 40 095 | 887 |
North West | 20 149 | 8 872 | 11 277 | 109 |
Mpumalanga | 15 395 | 8 674 | 6 721 | 123 |
Gauteng | 181 946 | 126 784 | 55 162 | 2 152 |
Limpopo | 9 204 | 5 524 | 3 680 | 90 |
Unknown | 50 | |||
TOTAL | 516 862 | 358 037 | 158 825 | 8 539 |
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 engin akyurt on Unsplash]