Covid-19 update: 31 new deaths reported in SA

As of Thursday, South Africa has recorded a total of 89,251 Covid-19 related deaths, with 31 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

319 new Covid-19 cases have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2.923,054.

This increase represents a 1% positivity rate, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, announced.

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (20%), followed by Gauteng Province (18%). Free State accounted for 17%; Western Cape accounted for 14%; Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape all accounted for 8% respectively; North West accounted for 5%; accounted for 3%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.   

18.639,800 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 32 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. 

The coronavirus has killed at least 5,020,845 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Thursday. 

The US has suffered the most Covid-related deaths with 750,431, followed by Brazil with 608,235, India with 459,652, Mexico with 288,887 and Russia with 243,255.

The US has also the most new deaths with 2,183, followed by Russia with 1,195 and Ukraine with 699. 

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