The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says at least 1291 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in South Africa over the past 24 hours.

This is at a positivity rate of some 5.6%.

“The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (592), followed by Western Cape (265). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for [245], Eastern Cape accounted for 81; Free State [26], Limpopo [22], Mpumalanga [31] and North West [22] each accounted for 2% respectively, and Northern Cape accounted for 7 of today’s new cases,” the institute said.

The NICD also reported an increase in the number of deaths and hospitalisations.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 18 deaths, and of these, 2 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,116 to date.

“There has been an increase of 43 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said.

Meanwhile, some 53 708 vaccines have been administered in the last 24 hour reporting period with the majority of those administered at Gauteng, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape.

This brings the total number of vaccines administered in South Africa to some 34 253 459. –

Source: South African Government News Agency