Covid-19 update: SA records 9,199 new cases

As of Friday, South Africa has recorded a total of 2.805,604 positive cases of Covid-19, with 9,199 new cases identified since the last report, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), has announced.

This increase, according to the institute, represents a 15.1% positivity rate.

247 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 83,161 to date.

16,654,409 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (26%), followed by Western Cape (21%). Eastern Cape accounted for 20%; Free State, Gauteng Province and Northern Cape each accounted for 7% respectively; Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 5% respectively; and Limpopo Province accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.

There has been an increase of 383 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

The coronavirus has killed at least 4,539,397 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data. 

The US is the worst-affected country with 643,669 deaths, followed by Brazil with 581,914, India with 439,895, Mexico 261,496 and Peru 198,364.

Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were the US with 1,549, followed by Mexico with 993 and Russia with 799.  

Additional reporting by AFP