Covid-19 update: 2,273 new cases reported in SA

As of Monday, South Africa has reported a total of 2,963,679 positive cases of Covid-19, with 2,273 new cases identified in the past 24 hours.

This increase represents a 10.7% positivity rate. 

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (84%), followed Western Cape accounting for 5%. KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 3%; Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 2% respectively; Free State and Limpopo each accounted for 1%. Eastern Cape and Northern Cape each accounted for less than 1% of today’s new cases.

As per the National Department of Health, a further 25 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89,822 to date, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

19.434,381 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors. 

There has been an increase of 79 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Dutch find 14 Omicron cases among South Africa passengers

Dutch health authorities said on Monday they have found another case of the new Omicron Covid-19 variant among passengers arriving from South Africa, bringing the total to 14.

“With the help of sequencing, it has now been confirmed in 14 people that it is the Omicron variant,” Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said in a letter to parliament.

De Jonge had on Sunday announced 13 Omicron infections. They were among 61 passengers who were confirmed with coronavirus, out of 624 travellers who arrived in Amsterdam on two KLM flights from South Africa on Friday.

Analysis of the samples “suggests that the people affected may have the virus most likely contracted in several places and in any case not during the flight”, De Jonge said.

Dutch authorities have ordered the 61 people who tested positive for Covid-19 to remain in quarantine, and most of them are in a hotel near Schiphol Airport.

Additional reporting by AFP