Covid-19 update: SA records significant drop in daily positive cases

On Monday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 5,575 new Covid-19 cases in South Africa that have been identified in a 24-hour cycle.

This marks a significant drop from the previous reports of 13,025 on Friday, 12,528 Saturday, and 8, 791 reported on Sunday.

South Africa now stands at 2. 461,758 laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 an increase that represents a 21.9% positivity rate.

“As per the National Department of Health, a further 246 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 72437 to date,” the institute reported.

14.926,582 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.

Meanwhile, the Gauteng provincial government has welcomed the way the public continues to respond to the call to get the Covid-19 jab as the province expands access to vaccination sites.

Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi said she was pleased with the weekend vaccination drive after visiting public vaccination sites on the weekend to assess their performance, offer support to the vaccination teams and mobilise those who are eligible to get the jab.

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“The fact that we have gone over one million people vaccinated during the month of July and are fast approaching two million talks to the high demand in communities to get vaccinated and the urgency with which we are approaching the vaccination rollout programme,” said Mokgethi.

Gauteng ramped up its vaccination rollout programme, last week after it had announced an increased number of public vaccination sites that were operational over the weekend from four to 17 sites across the province.

“The majority of these sites were in the Tshwane District, which had nine sites operational, Ekurhuleni and Joburg District had three sites each, whilst the Sedibeng District had two sites. All sites operated from morning to around lunchtime, with half of the sites operating on Saturday while the other on Sunday,” explained Mokgethi.