Covid-19 update: SA records 8,515 new cases and 105 deaths

South Africa has reported a total of 8,515 new positive cases of Covid-19, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.316,585. 

This increase represents a 29.9% positivity rate. 

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (29%), followed by Gauteng (22%). Western Cape accounted for 19%; Eastern Cape accounted for 8%; North West 7%. Free State accounted for 5%; Mpumalanga accounted for 4%; Limpopo and Northern Cape each accounted for 3% of today’s new cases.

As per the National Department of Health, a further 105 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90,453 to date.

20.719,331 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, announced.

There has been an increase of 328 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. 

Covid-19 cases in Tshwane drop significantly from 25 000 to 14 000

Once the global epicentre of the Omicron variant infection, the City of Tshwane is now reporting a significant drop in new infections.

The latest figures show that active cases have gone down from 25 285 to 14 275.

“The City of Tshwane has recorded a significant contraction of over 11 000 in the number of active Covid-19 cases. Our most recent Covid-19 report indicates that active cases have gone down as of this Monday, 20 December 2021,” said City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality spokesperson Sipho Stuurman.

“Last week Monday, the number of active cases stood at 25 285. This represents a rapid decline in active cases,” he added.

New confirmed daily cases have also decreased and are averaging around 1 000 per day. At some point during previous weeks, daily cases had peaked at 4 000 per day.

The number of new cases per day for the last five days is as follows:

• Thursday, 16 December 2021: 1 979 new cases
• Friday, 17 December 2021: 1 803 new cases
• Saturday, 18 December 2021: 1 588 new cases
• Sunday, 19 December 2021: 909 new cases
• Monday, 20 December 2021: 1 019 new cases