The National Department of Health (NDoH) has released its latest report with regard to COVID-19 in South Africa, as it has done for most days during the pandemic and lockdown.
This most recent report, however, has been accompanied. by some analysis as far as the country’s fight against the spread of the virus, and in particular the statistics since we experienced a massive wave of infections in July.
Before we look at some of the findings, first the latest figures as far as COVID-19 in South Africa is concerned, with 956 new cases being reported over the past 24 hours.
This brings the total at this stage to 650 749, with the number of recoveries to date now sitting at 579 289, according to the NDoH. The country’s recovery rate is now 89.01 percent, as it inches ever closer to the 90 percent mark.
Looking at the other important statistics, 52 new fatalities have been recorded over the past 24 hours, with Free State accounting for the vast majority at 21 deaths. The total number of fatalities to date is currently 15 499.
Shifting to some of the analysis, the NDoH has graphed the rate of infections (pasted below) in the country since the lockdown began, and naturally July saw a massive spike, with Gauteng in particular being the most heavily impacted province.
“The number of detected cases countrywide continues to decline- since the 22nd of August we have reported under 3000 cases a day- at the height of the epidemic during the month of July we would report anything between 10 000 and 15 000 cases a day,” explains the NDoH in its latest COVID-19 report.
“Supporting this decline is also a demonstrable decline in persons under investigation, general ward admissions, ICU admissions, deaths and excess deaths. Consistency across these indicators reassures us that indeed we are in the midst of a trough in the pandemic,” it adds.
With talk of the country moving to lockdown level 1 soon, it should be interesting to see if SA can continue with this trough, or whether another spike occurs.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Province | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 108 486 | 100 779 | 7 707 | 4 066 |
Eastern Cape | 87 456 | 82 842 | 4 614 | 3 051 |
Northern Cape | 13 564 | 10 256 | 2 859 | 165 |
Free State | 42 120 | 27 678 | 14 442 | 838 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 116 513 | 106 540 | 9 973 | 2 409 |
North West | 27 262 | 22 214 | 5 048 | 325 |
Mpumalanga | 25 825 | 24 469 | 1 356 | 466 |
Gauteng | 215 307 | 191 198 | 24 109 | 3 921 |
Limpopo | 14 216 | 13 313 | 903 | 258 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 650 749 | 579 289 | 71 460 | 15 499 |
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 Tim Mossholder on Unsplash]