The country recorded 633 COVID-19 related deaths on Tuesday.

The Health Department said the 633 deaths did not all happen in the last 24 hours, as the provinces continue to conduct audits of the deaths in hospitals and update the figures.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this pushes the death toll to 65 142 since the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the institute detected 12 537 new cases, bringing the cumulative number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 219 316.

“This increase represents a 24.2% positivity rate,” said the NICD.

According to the latest statistics, the majority of new cases are from Gauteng (50%), followed by Western Cape (14%).

In addition, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and the North West accounted for 7% each, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape 5% each, Free State 4%, and the Northern Cape 1% of the deaths.

According to the NICD, while the latest infections are higher than those recorded on Tuesday, they are still lower than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days.

“The seven-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased,” the NICD said.

Meanwhile, there 619 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

This means that there are now 17 157 ill patients receiving treatment across the country out of the 192 726 active cases.

In addition, the country administered 137 421 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 4 535 222.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are now 187 086 096 confirmed global cases, 4 042 921 deaths, and 3 327 841 570 administered vaccine doses.

Global view

According to the WHO’s weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19, the global number of new cases reported last week was nearly three million, a 10% increase as compared to the previous week.

Meanwhile, deaths peaked by 3% compared to the previous week, with over 55 000 deaths reported.

“Globally, COVID-19 incidence increased with an average of over 400 000 cases reported each day, as compared to 370 000 from the previous week.

“The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now over 186 million and the number of deaths exceeds four million,” the organisation explained.

In addition, all regions except the Americas, recorded an upsurge in incidence.

The highest number of new cases were reported in Brazil (333 030; a 9% decrease), India (291 789; 7% decrease), Indonesia (243 119; 44% increase), the United Kingdom (210 277; 30% increase), and Colombia (174 320; 15% decrease).

Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 178 countries and territories or areas, while 123 reported cases of the Beta variant.

In addition, 75 countries reported cases of the Gamma variant, and 111 recorded cases of the Delta variant.

Source: South African Government News Agency