Covid-19 update: 1,560 new cases identified in the past 24 hours

1,560 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in South Africa in the past 24 hours, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.710,766. 

This increase represents a 6.2% 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 Province (35%), followed by Western Cape (25%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 21%; Eastern Cape and North West each accounted for 5% respectively; Free State accounted for 4%; Limpopo and Mpumalanga each accounted for 2% respectively; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% 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 7 deaths and of these, 1 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours,” said the NICD.

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This brings the total fatalities to 99,939 to date.

23.701,064 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 35 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

UK Covid-19 infections nearing record highs: figures

Coronavirus levels reached all-time highs in Scotland and Wales and are nearing record levels in England, with around 4.2 million people infected across the UK last week, official figures showed Friday.

The steep rise in infections is due to Omicron BA.2, a more transmissible variant of Omicron, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Around one in 16 people in England were likely to have had the disease in the week to March 19, the third consecutive weekly rise, said the country’s official statistical body.

Around 4.26 million people were believed to have been infected across the whole UK last week, just shy of the 4.3 million record set in the first week of 2022.

Despite the number of infections, the New Year wave resulted in far fewer deaths than previous bouts due to Omicron’s relatively mild symptoms.

The number of people admitted to hospital in England and Wales is also on the rise, although the number of people in high-dependency units is still low.

Scotland’s hospitals are currently treating 2,326 patients, a new record.

Britain has been one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, recording 164,454 deaths.

James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and professor of structural biology at the University of Oxford, said there was “no sign yet the virus has peaked in terms of infections”.

“The sheer scale of the infection is now pressuring the health service but the combination of vaccination, improved treatments and the less severe nature of Omicron means for the vast majority of those infected this will not be life threatening,” he added.

Additional reporting by AFP