Covid-19 update: 81 new deaths take SA’s total to 88,835

As of Thursday, South Africa has recorded a total of 88,835 Covid-19 related deaths, with 81 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

The country has also identified 520 new cases of Covid-19, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2.918,366.

This increase represents a 1.6% positivity rate, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, said in a statement.

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (19%), followed by Western Cape (17%). Gauteng Province and Northern Cape each accounted for 14%; Free State accounted for 13%; North West accounted for 8%; Eastern Cape accounted for 7%; Mpumalanga accounted for 6%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.

There has been an increase of 62 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

18.283,702 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

80,000-180,000 health workers estimated dead from Covid by May 2021-WHO

The WHO said Thursday that 80,000 to 180,000 health care workers may have been killed by Covid-19 up to May this year, insisting they must be prioritised for vaccination.

The World Health Organization said the fact that millions of health workers remain unvaccinated is an “indictment” on the countries and companies controlling the global supply of doses.

A WHO paper estimated that out of the planet’s 135 million health staff, “between 80,000 to 180,000 health and care workers could have died from Covid-19 in the period between January 2020 to May 2021”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health care workers needed to be among the first immunised against the disease, as he slammed the global inequity in the vaccine roll-out.

“Data from 119 countries suggest that on average, two in five health and care workers globally are fully vaccinated. But of course, that average masks huge differences,” he said.

“In Africa, less than in one in 10 health workers have been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, in most high-income countries, more than 80 percent of health workers are fully vaccinated.”

He added: “We call on all countries to ensure that all health and care workers in every country are prioritised for Covid-19 vaccines, alongside other at-risk groups.”

Additional reporting by AFP