Covid-19 update: SA records 9,818 new cases and 53 deaths

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 9,818 new Covid-19 cases and 53 more deaths on Saturday.

The positivity rate is now 26.6%.

South Africa’s total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak of Covid-19 is 3,468,079. The country’s death toll now stands at 91,198.

According to the NICD, KwaZulu-Natal has overtaken the Western Cape as the province with the most number of new cases.

Provincial breakdown of new cases:

• KwaZulu-Natal: 2,573
• Western Cape: 2,522
• Gauteng: 1,673
• Eastern Cape: 1,170
• Free State: 489
• Mpumalanga: 460
• Limpopo: 340
• Northern Cape: 306
• North West: 285

Covid-19 global surge

The number of new infections spiralled by more than half across the world this week as the Covid-19 surge continues, while pandemic-linked deaths dropped 9%.

The average number of new daily coronavirus cases passed the symbolic one million mark to 1.18 million, a 57 % increase over the week before.

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The Europe region accounted for 54% of the cases, recording 4,490,612 over the week. The United States and Canada zone provided another 32%, with 2,636,831 cases.

The confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.

The main flare-ups at a regional level took place in Oceania and Latin America and the Caribbean, where they more than doubled – by 157% and 138% respectively.

There was also a big increase of 92% in cases in the United States/Canada zone. The number of infections increased in Europe by 47% and in the Middle East by 37%.

Cases in Africa, where the highly contagious Omicron variant was first detected, increased by just eight percent. Asia bucked the world trend with its infection numbers down two percent.

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