South Africa now has 4 008 697 COVID-19 cases after 253 new infections were logged in the past seven days, the Department of Health said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the death toll is sitting at 102 066 after 56 fatalities were recorded in the past week.

The latest data also show that the country is now home to 5 299 active cases, of which 1 430 can be found in KwaZulu-Natal, 1 329 in the Western Cape and 578 in Gauteng.

In addition, the recovery rate is standing at 97.3%, meaning 3 897 607 people beat the respiratory disease since the outbreak.

According to the department, the country administered 10 983 vaccine doses in the past 24 hours, pushing the total to 37 356 903.

The statistics show that 20 311 947 adults are jabbed in South Africa, of which 18 524 602 are fully jabbed.

Meanwhile, 3 797 shots were given to children aged between 12 and 17, bringing the total to 2 660 291 vaccine doses administered to minors.

Global view

Globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of new weekly cases dropped by 24% during the week of 8 to 14 August 2022, compared to the previous week, with over 5.4 million new cases reported.

Meanwhile, weekly deaths decreased by 6%, as compared to the previous week, with over 15 000 fatalities reported.

As of 14 August 2022, 587 million confirmed cases and 6.4 million deaths have been logged worldwide.

At country level, the highest numbers of new weekly cases were reported from Japan (1 395 301), Korea (866 830), the United States (679 653), Germany (271 277), and Italy (193 305).

In addition, the agency said the highest numbers of new weekly deaths were reported from the United States (2 907), Japan (1 647), Brazil (1 495), Italy (920) and Spain (573).

“Current trends in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths should be interpreted with caution as several countries have been progressively changing COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected,” the WHO explained.

“Additionally, data from countries are continuously updated by WHO to incorporate changes in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths made by countries retrospectively.”

The Omicron variant of concern (VOC) remains the dominant variant circulating globally, accounting for 99.3% of sequences.

Globally, as of 17 August 2022, there have been 589 680 368 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6 436 519 deaths, reported to the WHO.

Source: South African Government News Agency