As we approach the weekend, South Africans potentially have a few more days of stage 2 loadshedding on the horizon. This coupled with a continued fight against the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa, make the current atmosphere more than a little frustrating.
The latest statistics revealed by the National Department of Health (NDoH) also show a slight uptick in the number of new COVID-19 infections, with 3 954 recorded over the past 24 hours. This brings the total to 572 865 positive cases in the country to date.
As such, the jury is still out on whether the significant decrease in new cases is a trend or simply an anomaly of this week.
Added to this is the unfortunate recording of 260 new fatalities as a result of the pandemic, which now means that South Africa has seen 11 270 COVID-19 deaths.
Of the new fatalities, 68 were in the Eastern Cape, 62 in the Free State, 39 in KwaZulu-Natal, 30 in Gauteng, 21 in the Western Cape, 18 in Mpumalanga and 14 in Limpopo.
While these numbers make for grim reading, a recent report from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) suggests that most of the provinces in the country have reached their peak in terms of deaths.
“The downward turn of deaths is a positive sign that the virus may have peaked in some parts of the country and is in keeping with the epidemiological models of the pandemic,” explained SAMRC’s chief specialist scientist, Professor Debbie Bradshaw.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Province | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 100 976 | 89 529 | 11 447 | 3 506 |
| Eastern Cape | 83 002 | 78 385 | 4 617 | 2 400 |
| Northern Cape | 7 122 | 3 794 | 2 859 | 76 |
| Free State | 30 049 | 14 911 | 15 138 | 476 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 102 233 | 57 525 | 44 708 | 1 563 |
| North West | 22 483 | 12 559 | 9 924 | 150 |
| Mpumalanga | 20 111 | 16 794 | 3 317 | 167 |
| Gauteng | 195 820 | 154 392 | 41 428 | 2 791 |
| Limpopo | 11 019 | 9 728 | 1 291 | 141 |
| Unknown | 50 | |||
| TOTAL | 572 865 | 437 617 | 135 248 | 11 270 |
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 SWISS IM&H on Unsplash]
