Loadshedding has continued in earnest this week, with stage 2 starting once again from 9:00 this morning. Added to this is a the country edging ever closer to a less than satisfactory milestone for COVID-19 in South Africa as the number of cases nears the 600 000 mark.

According to the latest figures released by the National Department of Health (NDoH), the past 24 hours has seen 3 916 new infections recorded. This brings the current total to 596 060.

While that number does not reflect well on how the country has been able to curb the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa, the only positive element worth mentioning is the high recovery rate that is being reported. To that end we have 491 441 recoveries at the time of writing, which translates to a recovery rate of 82 percent.

That said, the number of fatalities continues to rise, with the death toll as a result of COVID-19 in South Africa now sitting at 12 423. This as 159 deaths have been added to the total over the past 24 hours.

The NDoH notes that of the 149 fatalities, 45 are in KwaZulu-Natal, 43 in Gauteng, 37 in the Eastern Cape, 29 in the Western Cape and five in Free State.

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 engin akyurt on Unsplash]