Covid-19 update: SA records 10,139 new cases and 272 deaths

As of Sunday, South Africa has recorded a total of 2.605 586 positive cases of Covid-19, with 10,139 new cases identified since the last report, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

This increase, according to the NICD, represents a 21 per cent positivity rate.

The country has also recorded 272 Covid-19 related deaths, bringing total fatalities to 77,141 to date.

15,595,731 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 update: SA records 13,021 new cases and 238 deaths

The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape (26%), KwaZulu-Natal (28%). Gauteng Province accounted for 12%; Eastern Cape accounted for 13%; Free State 5 % and Mpumalanga, North West and Northern Cape accounted for 4% and Limpopo province accounted for 3% of today’s new cases.

There has been an increase of 219 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

Poland sells vaccines to Australia

Poland has sold one million Pfizer Covid vaccine doses to Australia as part of a “responsible policy of solidarity”, Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzieslki said.

Poland’s vaccine purchases “allow us to meet the needs of our citizens and support others in need”.

Protests in Thailand

Thousands of protesters in cars and on bikes mass in Bangkok’s central shopping district, one of several mobile rallies across Thailand demanding Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha resign over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The kingdom is grappling with its worst outbreak so far, registering record numbers of daily infections each week as hospitals struggle to cope.

Record daily deaths in Iran

Iran reports over 600 daily Covid deaths for the first time, ahead of tightened curbs to contain the spread of the virus.

The Islamic republic is struggling to curb what officials have called a “fifth wave” of the virus-driven by the highly infectious Delta variant.

Thousands pray in Lourdes despite Covid

Almost 9,000 Catholics gather at the Lourdes pilgrimage site for Sunday’s annual Feast of the Assumption, despite France battling a fourth wave of the virus.

They were accompanied by around 300 sick people seeking a miraculous cure at the site, home to a shrine to French peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, to whom Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared several times in 1858. 

The shrine itself is closed to the public to curb the spread of the virus

Over 4.3 million dead

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 4,353,003 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data. 

At least 206,744,860 cases of coronavirus have been registered. 

The United States is the worst-affected country with 621,253 deaths from 36,640,481 cases, followed by Brazil with 568,788 deaths from 20,350,142 cases, India 431,225 deaths from 32,192,576 cases and Mexico 248,167 deaths from 3,091,971 cases.