While we would normally be getting ready to enjoy the weekend now that Spring has begun, as has been the case over the past 18 months, the spectre of COVID-19 in South Africa looms large.
Added to this is no official word on the reports that the country would be moving to a lower level of lockdown and easing of restrictions.
If that were to happen, the current numbers we are seeing regarding the spread of the virus would need to drop significantly.
To that end the latest report form the National Department of Health (NDoH) shows that 6 270 cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections recorded to date to 2 843 042.
The number of newly reported fatalities is also high at 175, with the death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa climbing to 84 327.
With local general elections set to take place on 1st November, those numbers will need to drop significantly in order to encourage voter turnout.
Looking at the other figures in the report, the recovery rate has increased slightly to 92.8 percent, while over 16.93 million tests have been conducted to date.
As for the vaccine rollout, the past 24 hours has seen 225 558 vaccines administered. As of 17:00 on 9th September, 14 367 151 vaccines in total have been administered, with an estimated 7 021 256 people inoculated at this stage.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
| Western Cape | 498 465 | 466 737 | 12 769 | 18 959 |
| Eastern Cape | 280 638 | 254 605 | 11 796 | 14 237 |
| Northern Cape | 85 565 | 76 876 | 6 642 | 2 047 |
| Free State | 154 814 | 131 955 | 16 390 | 6 469 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 497 628 | 428 097 | 55 619 | 13 912 |
| North West | 146 334 | 135 007 | 7 395 | 3 932 |
| Mpumalanga | 148 010 | 142 952 | 3 141 | 1 917 |
| Gauteng | 910 583 | 886 313 | 5 307 | 18 963 |
| Limpopo | 121 005 | 115 164 | 1 950 | 3 891 |
| Unknown | 0 | |||
| TOTAL | 2 843 042 | 2 637 706 | 121 009 | 84 327 |
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:
- 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 Mika Baumeister on Unsplash]
