We are now day 18 into alert level 1 lockdown, and at this stage, it looks like the number of new daily infections for COVID-19 in South Africa is holding relatively steady, having rarely surpassed the 2k mark over the past couple of weeks.
Whether that is a sign that South Africa is ready to move out of lockdown, however, remains to be seen, which means we’ll have to continue to monitor the latest reports from the National Department of Health (NDoH).
To that end, the past 24 hours has seen 1 913 new cases being reported, pushing the total number of positive cases in the country to date to 685 155, with more than 4.3 million tests being conducted.
As for recoveries, these now sit at 618 127, translating to a recovery rate of 90 percent. This has been the percentage for some time now, so it is unclear if and indeed when it will rise.
Regrettably a significant number of additional fatalities have also been reported by the NDoH, with 145 new deaths bringing the total number for the country to date to 17 248.
Of the new 145, the NDoH says that one is from the Eastern Cape, 11 from the Free State, 42 from KwaZulu Natal, 41 from Gauteng, 24 from Limpopo, 11 from Mpumalanga, seven from the Northern Cape and eight from the Western Cape.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Province | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 111 826 | 104 690 | 7 136 | 4 231 |
Eastern Cape | 90 165 | 85 301 | 4 864 | 3 145 |
Northern Cape | 18 207 | 15 073 | 2 859 | 228 |
Free State | 49 270 | 35 195 | 14 075 | 1 084 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 119 930 | 111 318 | 8 612 | 2 820 |
North West | 30 288 | 27 272 | 3 016 | 375 |
Mpumalanga | 27 800 | 26 525 | 1 275 | 577 |
Gauteng | 221 719 | 197 892 | 23 827 | 4 373 |
Limpopo | 15 950 | 14 861 | 1 089 | 415 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 685 155 | 618 127 | 67 028 | 17 248 |
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 – United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash]