Covid-19 update: 2,334 new cases reported in SA

South Africa has identified 2,334 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.662,032.

This increase represents a 7.3% positivity rate, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (39%), followed by Kwa-Zulu Natal and Western Cape, each accounting for 15% respectively. North West accounted for 8%; Mpumalanga accounted for 7%; Eastern Cape and Free State each accounted for 5% respectively. Limpopo accounted for 3% and Northern Cape accounted for 2% 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 64 deaths and of these, 1 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 98,868 to date,” said the NICD in a statement.

22.928,257 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 73 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Omicron variant no more severe than original strain – WHO

The BA.2 variant of the Omicron Covid-19 strain is not more severe than the original, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Based on a sample of people from various countries, “we are not seeing a difference in severity of BA.1 compared to BA.2,” Maria Van Kerkhove, a senior WHO official, said in an online question and answer session.

“So this is a similar level of severity as it relates to risk of hospitalisation. And this is really important, because in many countries, they’ve had a substantial amount of circulation, both of BA.1 and BA.2,” she said.

Van Kerkhove, who leads the technical side of the WHO’s Covid-19 response team, was reporting the findings of a committee of experts tracking the evolution of the virus.

Their conclusions will come as a relief to countries such as Denmark, where the BA.2 variant of Omicron has circulated widely.

Additional reporting by AFP