Covid-19 update: SA has 104,619 active cases, with recovery rate of 82%

As of today, a cumulative total of 596,060 confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa have been recorded, with 3,916 new cases identified, said Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.

The country also recorded 159 Covid-19 related deaths – 37 from Eastern Cape, 43 from Gauteng, 45 from KwaZulu-Natal, 5 from Free State and 29 from Western Cape. This brings the total Covid-19 related cumulative deaths to 12,423.

“We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the health care workers who treated the deceased. The recoveries now stand at 491 441 which translates to a recovery rate of 82%.”

Below is the provincial breakdown:

Source: Health department

Source: Health department

KwaZulu-Natal, the province which had the first known Covid-19 patient in the country, is likely to have passed its peak infections, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said on Wednesday.

“In essence, as a province, we peaked and I believe we peaked just a few weeks after Gauteng. You would remember that towards the end of July, we had numbers that varied from 3 000 to 3 900. We had that average number for two weeks,” she told journalists during a site visit to Clairwood Hospital in Durban.

Simelane-Zulu said there had been a decrease in numbers since the beginning of August.

“Since early August, we’ve started seeing a bit of a dip and we are going down. At this point, we don’t want to outright say our numbers have gone down.”

She was speaking after the Covid-19 hospital facility was handed over by the Department of Public Works to the Department of Health.

Simelane-Zulu said there were still a few days before numbers truly declined.

“The World Health Organisation has a protocol for the number of days that you can clearly say that your pandemic is on the decline. We don’t believe we’ve reached that yet. We will wait for a couple of days and see how our numbers are going to go down.”

This is no time to let your guard down

She urged the public to remain cautious despite the drop in numbers and the downgrade to Level 2.

“I must indicate I want to still call on our people that because we moved from Level 3 to Level 2 to exercise caution, but it does not mean the virus is not there anymore.”

Simelane-Zulu called on people to maintain mitigating measures, including wearing of a mask, sanitising and maintaining physical distancing.

“If we don’t do that, we will see our numbers rising.”

She said Clairwood Hospital became a Covid-19 facility at the beginning of the lockdown.

“We decided at the beginning of the pandemic that we would make this a Covid-19 hospital. We started moving the patients here to other facilities nearby.”

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