Covid-19 update: SA records 1,635 new cases and 79 deaths

As of Friday, South Africa has recorded a total of 2.904,307 positive cases of Covid-19, with 1,635 new cases identified since the last report, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, continues to provide laboratory-based surveillance to inform the public health response towards Covid-19 in South Africa, has announced.

This increase represents a 4.4% positivity rate.

The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape (25%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (21%). Gauteng Province and Eastern Cape accounted for 12% each; Free State accounted for 11%; Northern Cape accounted for 9%; North West accounted for 5%; Mpumalanga accounted for 4%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.

The country has also recorded 79 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 87,705 to date.

17,727,831 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors

There has been an increase of 114 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. 

The coronavirus has killed at least 4,780,108 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 697,695 deaths, followed by Brazil with 596,749, India with 448,339, Mexico 277,505 and Russia 208,142.

Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were the US with 2,694, followed by Russia with 887 and Brazil with 627.

Additional reporting by AFP