Covid-19 update: 2,055 new cases bring SA’s total to 708, 359

As of Wednesday, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases is 708, 359, with 2, 055 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the health department has reported.

The country has also recorded 85 new deaths today, bringing the total number to 18,741.

“Of the 85 deaths reported today, 8 occurred in the past 48 hours. We extend our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the healthcare workers who treated the deceased patients,” said the department.

Source: Health department

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,126,471 people since the outbreak emerged in China late last year, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Wednesday.

At least 40,856,210 cases have been registered worldwide. Of these, at least 28,035,900 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

On Tuesday, 6,630 new deaths and 382,496 new cases were recorded worldwide.

The countries with the most new deaths were the United States with 854, followed by India with 717 and Brazil with 651.

The US is the worst-affected country with 221,083 deaths from 8,275,066 cases. At least 3,295,148 people there have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 154,837 deaths from 5,273,954 cases, India with 115,914 deaths from 7,651,107 cases, Mexico with 86,993 deaths from 860,714 cases, and the United Kingdom with 43,967 deaths from 762,542 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 103 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Belgium with 91, Spain 73 and Bolivia 73.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 85,715 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 80,834 recoveries.

Latin America and the Caribbean overall have 383,779 deaths from 10,619,763 cases, Europe 254,318 deaths from 7,834,778 infections, and the United States and Canada 230,875 deaths from 8,478,221 cases.

Asia has reported 161,879 deaths from 9,873,513 cases, the Middle East 54,381 deaths from 2,350,882 cases, Africa 40,225 deaths from 1,665,509 cases, and Oceania 1,008 deaths from 33,551 cases.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.