Covid-19 update: 116 new cases reported in SA

As of Monday, South Africa has recorded a total of 2.924,072 positive cases of Covid-19, with 116 new cases identified since the last report.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (33%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal accounting for 20%. Western Cape accounted for 13%; Mpumalanga accounted for 8%; Eastern Cape accounted for 7%; Free State, Northern Cape and North West each accounted for 6% respectively; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.

This increase represents a 0.7% positivity rate, announced the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, on Monday.

As per the National Department of Health, a further 20 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89,352 to date.

18.740,830 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 16 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

– More than five million dead – 

The coronavirus has killed at least 5,047,055 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Monday. 

The US has suffered the most Covid-related deaths with 754,431, followed by Brazil with 609,447, India with 461,057, Mexico with 289,734 and Russia with 248,004.

The countries with the most new deaths were Russia with 1,190, followed by Ukraine with 473 and Romania with 273.

Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.

Additional reporting by AFP