Covid-19 update: 271 more deaths, 371 hospital admissions reported

As of Saturday, 7 August, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 2,523,488 with 12,371 new cases identified, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed.

This represents a 21.6% positivity rate.

271 more Covid-19 related deaths were reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 74 623. The total number of recoveries stood at 2,290,327 with a recovery rate of 90,8%.

15,213,499 tests in total have been conducted to date in both public and private sectors. The country also has 158,544 active cases.

The total number of vaccines administered in the country so far stands at 8,588,454.

Provincial breakdown

The majority of new Covid-19 cases came from Western Cape (30%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (21%) and Gauteng (16%).

Meanwhile, Eastern Cape accounted for 9%; Mpumalanga accounted for 7%; North West & Free State each accounted for 5% respectively, and Limpopo & Northern Cape each accounted for 3% respectively of Satuday’s new cases.

A further 371 hospital admissions were reported in the past 24 hours.

Global developments

Police fire on Thai protesters

In Thailand, police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at hundreds of protesters in Bangkok demanding political reform and calling for a change to the sluggish coronavirus vaccination programme.

Protests in France

Protesters take to the streets across France for the fourth weekend in a row against a new coronavirus health pass needed for inter-city trains and many indoor public spaces, two days before the new rules come into force.

Single-shot approval

India gives emergency approval to Johnson and Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its flailing immunisation campaign as fears grow of a new wave of infections. 

Australia battles the virus

Australia’s state of New South Wales reports another record day of Covid-19 cases, and authorities in the country’s second city of Melbourne rush to trace the source of its outbreaks.

Unvaccinated at greater risk

Unvaccinated people are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with Covid-19 as the fully vaccinated, according to a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Half of Americans jabbed

Half of the US population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the White House says, as inoculations rise in response to the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Over 4.2 million dead

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,275,868 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data. 

The US is the worst-affected country with 616,493 deaths, followed by Brazil with 561,762, India with 427,371, Mexico with 243,733 and Peru with 196,818.