We enter another weekend where new cases for COVID-19 in South Africa is on the rise.
While the National Department of Health (NDoH) is yet to confirm a third wave for the entire country, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has. This as several provinces are in the midst of a surge in positive cases and the latest figures are dangerously close to those we saw during the second wave at the festive season earlier in the year.
To that end, the NDoH confirms that 9 149 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections recorded to date to 1 722 086.
What this will mean for the Sisonke Protocol vaccine rollout remains to be seen, as the department is still quite far off track from its target of vaccinating five million people by the end of June.
Speaking of which, a total of 1 619 011 vaccines have been administered to date. While that might seem a high number, it is important to note that 1 139 243 of these are the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, requiring a second dose before full inoculation can be confirmed.
As for the other key figures in the latest report, the recovery rate has expectedly dropped again to 92.5 percent, with 1 593 059 recoveries have been reported so far.
Unfortunately, however, 100 new fatalities have been reported as well, as the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa climbs to 57 410.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 298 743 | 281 177 | 1 996 | 11 923 |
| Eastern Cape | 199 400 | 186 148 | 210 | 11 688 |
| Northern Cape | 53 790 | 45 075 | 3 554 | 1 196 |
| Free State | 105 932 | 92 185 | 2 398 | 4 517 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 342 291 | 326 535 | 5 041 | 10 551 |
| North West | 80 569 | 70 085 | 2 881 | 1 996 |
| Mpumalanga | 84 818 | 81 139 | 991 | 1 470 |
| Gauteng | 489 711 | 447 702 | 3 231 | 11 573 |
| Limpopo | 66 832 | 63 013 | 295 | 2 496 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 1 722 086 | 1 593 059 | 20 597 | 57 410 |
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 Pam Menegakis on Unsplash]
