The latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) on COVID-19 in South Africa features both positives and negatives.
On the positive side of things, we are beginning to see a ramping up of capacity in terms of the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout. This as 77 505 vaccines have been administered over the past 24 hours, which is a significant jump from the 40k that were administered the previous day. As a result, the total number of vaccines administered to date now sits at 558 170.
On the negative side of things, however, we have also seen an increase in the number of new daily infections. The past 24 hours has seen 3 522 new cases being recorded. While the country is not officially in the midst of a third wave of infections, Gauteng and the Free State are, which of course raises cause for concern.
Looking at the other key figures in the report, the total number of infections recorded to date has risen to 1 621 362, with over 11.2 million tests have been conducted to date. As a result of the increasing daily infections, the recovery rate has dropped slightly to 94.2 percent, with 1 528 868 recoveries recorded to date.
Unfortunately, the number of new fatalities is up too, with 167 reported by the NDoH. The North West accounts for the most new fatalities at 46, with the Free State and Gauteng following with 38 and 35 respectively. The result sees the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa increase to 55 507.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 290 345 | 275 853 | 1 996 | 11 730 |
| Eastern Cape | 196 798 | 18 4707 | 210 | 11 628 |
| Northern Cape | 45 634 | 38 099 | 3 554 | 994 |
| Free State | 95 753 | 85 452 | 2 398 | 4 108 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 338 312 | 323 011 | 5 041 | 10 470 |
| North West | 71 748 | 64 504 | 2 881 | 1 884 |
| Mpumalanga | 80 330 | 77 716 | 991 | 1 424 |
| Gauteng | 437 872 | 417 739 | 3 231 | 10 948 |
| Limpopo | 64 570 | 61 787 | 295 | 2 361 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 1 621 362 | 1 528 868 | 20 597 | 55 547 |
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 Nick Fewings on Unsplash]
