Most of the country is bracing for a cold weekend as Winter has begun in earnest. While we try to stay warm, there is still COVID-19 in South Africa to consider. Added to that is the ever looming threat of loadshedding, with Eskom confirming that the grid has been put under strain this week as generation units falter.
As for the latest numbers on COVID-19 in South Africa, it looks as if the amount of new daily infections remains relatively high with 4 424 cases recorded over the past 24 hours according to the NDoH. This sees the total number of infections recorded in the country to date rise to 1 649 977 as over 11.49 million tests have been conducted so far.
The recovery rate has also fallen slightly as a result to 93.8 percent, with 1 548 092 recoveries being reported.
Looking at the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout, a total of 828 204 vaccines have been administered to date. It is, however, important to note that 348 436 of these are the first dose of two Pfizer vaccines, so the full extent of inoculated people in SA is unknown at this stage.
The final figures from the NDoH report to look at are fatalities, with 93 new deaths recorded in the past 24 hours. Gauteng accounts for the most of the new 93, with 42, followed by the Free State and Limpopo with 17 and 15 respectively. The result sees the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa increase to 56 170.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 292 601 | 277 632 | 1 996 | 11 789 |
| Eastern Cape | 197 462 | 185 045 | 210 | 11 657 |
| Northern Cape | 49 046 | 40 329 | 3 554 | 1 046 |
| Free State | 99 517 | 87 755 | 2 398 | 4 280 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 339 376 | 324 656 | 5 041 | 10 500 |
| North West | 74 706 | 67 039 | 2 881 | 1 889 |
| Mpumalanga | 81 806 | 78 668 | 991 | 1 438 |
| Gauteng | 450 377 | 424 933 | 3 231 | 11 141 |
| Limpopo | 65 086 | 62 035 | 295 | 2 430 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 1 649 977 | 1 548 092 | 20 597 | 56 170 |
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 Maskmedicare Shop on Unsplash]
