Covid-19 update: More than 11,000 new cases recorded

Another slight increase in new Covid-19 cases has been recorded by the National Institue for Communicable Disease (NICD) for Wednesday. 

The newest statistics pushed the country’s positivity rate up from 20.1% on Tuesday to 22.2% on Wednesday. 

A further 110 Covid-19-related deaths were confirmed, slightly down from Tuesday’s numbers.

The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal now each account for 26% of the country’s new caseloads, followed by Gauteng, with 19%. 

Encouragingly, the NICD said the seven day moving average of daily case numbers has decreased. 

A new variant has since been discovered in France, and is suspected of potentially being more infectious than Omicron. 

It is currently known as IHU or B.1.640, and 12 people have tested positive in France so far. 

The variant presents 46 more mutations than Omicron. 

Global developments

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces changes to Covid rules for travel to England, imposed after the highly contagious Omicron Covid variant spread, scrapping the need for pre-departure tests and quarantine on arrival until the traveller has tested negative.

More than one in 20 people in Britain, or an estimated 3.7 million people, had Covid-19 in the last week of 2021, the highest infection rate recorded during the pandemic, official data shows.

France also declares a record 335,000 new daily cases, according to Health Minister Olivier Veran.

And the Netherlands and Israel record their highest number of daily cases, with 24,590 and 12,000 respectively.

Hong Kong bans flights from eight countries including Britain, the United States, France, India and Australia from Saturday and shutters bars, gyms and restaurants in the evening after the Omicron variant is detected in the city.

Romania reimposes the wearing of surgical masks outdoors, the number of daily cases having tripled since the beginning of 2022.

The coronavirus has killed at least 5,456,207 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on Wednesday.

Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by AFP.