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.

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“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.

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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.

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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

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By Citizen Reporter
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