Covid-19 update: 23 new deaths bring SA’s total to 89,220

As of Wednesday, South Africa has recorded a total of 2.922,735 positive cases of Covid-19, with 344 new cases identified since the last report.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (41%), followed by Western Cape (13%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 12%; Free State accounted for 10%; North West accounted for 8%; Eastern Cape accounted for 6%; Mpumalanga accounted for 5%; Northern Cape accounted for 3%; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.

This increase represents a 1.3% positivity rate, said the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, in a statement on Wednesday.

As per the National Department of Health, a further 23 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89,220 to date.

18.606,274 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 37 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

The coronavirus has killed at least 5,012,784 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Wednesday. 

The US has suffered the most Covid-related deaths with 748,621, followed by Brazil with 608,071, India with 459,191, Mexico with 288,733 and Russia with 242,060.

The countries with the most new deaths were the US with 1,201, closely followed by Russia with 1,189 and Ukraine with 720.

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

Additional reporting by AFP