As we reach the end of July, the country has moved out of alert level 4 lockdown. While that is indeed a positive, we are still far from having COVID-19 in South Africa under control as the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) confirms, there has been a drop in newly reported cases, but the number of deaths is still high.
To that end, the NDoH says 5 683 new infections have been recorded over the past 24 hours and 243 fatalities have been reported. This pushes the total number of cases for South Africa to date to 2 383 490, with the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa now rising to 70 108.
The department also notes that over 14.58 million tests have been conducted to date, while the recovery rate sits at 91 percent as 2 169 452 recoveries have been registered so far.
These latest figures once again point to the importance of the vaccine rollout as we try to grapple with the impact of the delta variant of the virus.
As of 17:00 on 26th July, 6 613 704 vaccines have been administered throughout the country, as more jabs have been secured from Johnson & Johnson and government has confirmed that it plans to ramp up the rollout, administering more vaccines on weekends in particular.
With those aged 18 to 34 set to receive vaccines as of 1st September, the much needed increase in pace for the country’s vaccination programme is beginning to take shape.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 383 425 | 337 665 | 31 104 | 14 656 |
Eastern Cape | 223 935 | 205 080 | 6 237 | 12 618 |
Northern Cape | 65 535 | 59 385 | 4 461 | 1 689 |
Free State | 126 542 | 108 895 | 12 011 | 5 636 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 386 217 | 354 304 | 20 578 | 11 335 |
North West | 124 115 | 98 837 | 22 397 | 2 881 |
Mpumalanga | 120 632 | 111 894 | 7 085 | 1 653 |
Gauteng | 844 746 | 795 422 | 32 888 | 16 436 |
Limpopo | 108 343 | 97 970 | 7 259 | 3 114 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 2 383 490 | 2 169 452 | 144 020 | 70 018 |
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 Roger Bradshaw on Unsplash]