Covid-19 update: SA records 2,862 new cases and 146 deaths

South Africa has recorded a total of 3.637,673 positive cases of Covid-19, with 2,862 new cases identified in the last 24 hours.

This increase represents an 8.7% 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 Gauteng (38%), followed by Western Cape (16%). KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga each accounted for 11% respectively. Free State, Limpopo  and the North West each accounted for 6% respectively; while Eastern Cape and Northern Cape each accounting for 3% each of today’s new cases.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 146 deaths and of these, 8 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 96,851 to date,” said the NICD.

22.624,015 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 103 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. 

Covid-19 retreats for second week

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to abate around the world this week, slowing down in every region.

Here is a state of play based on AFP’s database.

– 17 percent drop –

After a surge which lasted for three-and-a-half months, the average number of global daily cases dropped for a second week in a row, receding by 17 percent to 2.52 million, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

The confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.

– All regions down –

Every region of the world saw an improvement over the past seven days.

Cases dropped by two fifths, or 41 percent, in the United States and Canada zone, by 30 percent in Africa, by 26 percent in the Latin America-Caribbean zone, by 13 percent in Asia, nine percent in Europe and two percent in the Middle East.

When a catch up in figures in Australia is discounted, the number of cases in Oceania dropped by around a quarter.

– Main spikes –

Hong Kong saw the biggest spike in the number of new cases this week with a mighty 339 percent surge.

East Timor followed with an increase of 322 percent, Belarus with 169 percent more, Indonesia (up 141 percent) and Singapore (119 percent more).

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– Main drops –

Kosovo saw the biggest drop of the week with 54 percent fewer cases, followed by Kazakhstan with 52 percent less, Panama (-48 percent), Sweden (-47 percent) and Paraguay minus (-46 percent).

– US still has most cases –

The US remained the country with the highest number of new Covid-19cases with 213,700 per day on average. Nevertheless, that was 41 percent down on last week.

Next in line came Germany with 192,400 cases a day, an increase of 14 percent and Russia on 177,600, a 41 percent spike.

On a per capita basis, the country with the most new cases over the week was Denmark with 5,425 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by the Netherlands (4,738), Georgia (3,709), Estonia (3,544) and Latvia (3,504).

– Deaths –

The number of Covid-linked deaths increased by six percent globally, with 11,111 deaths per day, increasing for a fifth week in a row but albeit at a slower pace than previous weeks.

Even though the highly contagious Omicron variant led at its peak to four times more daily infections than previous waves, daily deaths remain far lower than their record high in January 2021 when they skirted 15,000.

The US recorded the most deaths this week with 2,708 per day, ahead of India (1,077) and Brazil (859).

The countries reporting the highest death rates in proportion to their population were all in the Balkans with Bosnia recording 10.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, Bulgaria (9.5), Northern Macedonia (9.2) and Croatia (8.3).

Additional reporting by AFP