It is the beginning of September, which marks yet another month that the country greets while in lockdown. It also marks another month where COVID-19 in South Africa is the main concern, with the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) confirming an increase in the number of fatalities compared to the previous day.

To that end, 431 new deaths have been recorded over the past 24 hours as we continue to bring the impact of the delta variant of the virus under control. Added to this are concerns regarding the newly discovered C.1.2 variant this week, along with a predicted fourth wave of infections come late November/early December.

The death toll related to COVID-19 in South Africa has since risen to 82 261, while 7 086 new infections have been recorded over the past 24 hours. This pushes the total number of cases recorded to date to 2 777 659.

Other key statistics in the report indicate that over 16.47 million tests have been conducted to date, while the recovery rate is 91.6 percent given the lower number of new infections compared to previous weeks. As we have seen in the past, however, that can quickly change, which places greater importance on the vaccine rollout.

On that front, the past 24 hours has seen 261 288 vaccines administered. As of 17:00 on 31st August, 12 568 525 vaccines have been administered in total, with an estimated 5 985 293 people inoculated at this stage.

The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:

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 Blessing Ri on Unsplash]