Covid-19 update: SA death toll almost at 80k

South Africa continues to record high daily numbers of Covid-19 cases, while the number of fatalities continues to soar.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service responsible for the surveillance of Covid-19, on Tuesday reported 10,685 new cases recorded within a 24-hour cycle.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,624,254, which represents a 20.4% positivity rate.

 “A further 553 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 77 993 to date.”

It said a total of 15,685,889 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

According to the institute, the Western Cape continues to lead the number of daily infections, accounting for 26% of infections on Tuesday.

it said the province was followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 21%, while the Eastern Cape accounted for 17%; Gauteng for 11%; and the Free State, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape accounted for 6% each.

North West accounted for 5%; and Limpopo for 2% of Tuesday’s new cases.

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There has been also been an increase of hospital admissions with 526, compared to Monday’s 331.

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla revealed that the government is planning to open Covid-19 vaccinations for all adults over the age of 18 in South Africa earlier than expected.

There have been calls for the vaccine to rolled out to 18 to 34 year olds immediately, rather than waiting until 1 September.

This is due to the low turnout of people in the past week, despite more vaccination sites opening across the country for citizens to get either the double-dose Pfizer-BioNTech or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson (J&J) shots.