Covid-19 update: 533 new cases and 55 deaths reported in SA

As of Thursday, South Africa has recorded a total of 2.921,114 positive cases of Covid-19, with 533 new cases identified in the past 24 hours.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (28%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal accounting for 17%. Western Cape accounted for 14%; Free State accounted for 10%; Northern Cape accounted for 8%; Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga each accounted for 7% respectively; North West accounted for 5%; and Limpopo accounted for 4% of today’s new cases.

Of the 2.921,114 people who contracted the virus, 2.813,442 recovered, while 89,104 did not make it, announced the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, on Thursday.

18,471,818 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 30 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

UK cuts last countries from Covid travel ‘red list’

The UK government is to remove all remaining countries from its travel “red list”, scrapping bans on foreigners travelling to England, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Thursday.

The minister announced the remaining seven countries on the list — Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela — will be taken off on November 1.

Britons arriving from these countries will no longer need to spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel, while nationals of those countries will now be allowed to travel to England.

“We will keep the red list category in place as a precautionary measure to protect public health and are prepared to add countries and territories back if needed, as the UK’s first line of defence,” Shapps said on Twitter.

The government will also recognise coronavirus vaccines for arrivals from more than 30 new countries and territories, he added.

Wales will also adopt similar changes, said its devolved government.

“I am glad we are able to reduce the travel list even further, giving a huge boost to businesses, families and friends wanting to travel,” said health minister Sajid Javid.

Additional reporting by AFP