Covid-19 update: SA records 3,237 new cases and 10 deaths

South Africa has identified 3,237 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.844,625. This increase represents an 18.7% positivity rate.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (52%) followed by KwaZulu-Natal (20%). Western Cape accounted for 11%; Eastern Cape and Free State each accounted for 5% respectively. Mpumalanga, North West and Northern Cape each accounted for 2% respectively; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.

The country has also reported 10 deaths, and of these, 4 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,533 to date.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of Covid-19 mortality cases reported,” said the NICD on Monday.

24.693,273 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 67 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

The World Health Organization’s Dr Owen Kaluwa called on South Africans to vaccinate urgently as the country nears a new Covid-19 positivity rate record amid the fifth wave.

Speaking to City Press, Dr Kaluwa, said scientists “predicted this would happen around this time”.

Kaluwa said the debate as to whether we are in the fifth wave or not is not the focus point”. Instead, the rising new infections should prompt individuals to vaccinate.

“What is important now, given the increasing numbers of infections, is for those who are not vaccinated to do so urgently. This includes those who are partially vaccinated”, he said.

That said, we are still a ways to go before we reach the peak of the delta variant when hundreds of people died daily and hospital admissions reached an average of 16,000 per day.

READ MORE: Calls to vaccinate as SA nears highest Covid-19 positivity rate record

Additional reporting by Cheryl Kahla