Covid-19 update: 18 new deaths reported in SA

South Africa has recorded a total of 89,197 Covid-19 related deaths to date, with 18 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

The institute has reported 169 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2.922,391.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (22%), followed by Free State and KwaZulu-Natal at 17% each. Mpumalanga accounted for 12%; Western Cape accounted for 11%; Eastern Cape accounted for 8%; North West accounted for 7%; Northern Cape accounted for 5%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.

This increase represents a 0.8% positivity rate.

18.578,882 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors

There has been an increase of 23 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Latest global developments

More than five million have now died from the virus, according to an AFP tally from official sources, though the World Health Organization estimates the real figure could be more than twice as high.  

The coronavirus has killed at least 5,003,717 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Tuesday. 

The US has suffered the most Covid-related deaths with 747,033, followed by Brazil with 607,922, India with 458,880, Mexico with 288,464 and Russia with 240,871.

The US has also the most new deaths with 1,192, followed closely by Russia with 1,178 and Ukraine with 700. 

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

Additional reporting by AFP