Covid-19 update: SA’s positivity rate below 1%

As of Sunday, South Africa has recorded a total of 89,332 Covid-19 related deaths, with 13 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

205 new Covid-19 cases have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 923 956.

This increase represents a 0.8% positivity rate, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, announced.

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (18%), followed by Gauteng Province (30%). Free State accounted for 15%; Western Cape accounted for 11%; Eastern Cape 6%, Mpumalanga 10% and Northern Cape 4%; North West accounted for 4%, and Limpopo accounted for 3% of today’s new cases.

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18 724 313 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 22 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. 

Global Covid-19 death toll

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 5,042,330 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Sunday.

At least 249,431,180 cases of coronavirus have been registered. 

The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.

The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country. 

They exclude revisions made by other statistical organisations, which show that the number of deaths is much higher.

The World Health Organization estimates that the pandemic’s overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19. 

A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.

On Saturday, 6,306 new deaths and 411,296 new cases were recorded worldwide. 

Additional reporting from AFP