Covid-19 update: SA reports 2,970 new cases and 31 deaths

2,970 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has reported.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (31%), followed by Western Cape (23%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 13%; Eastern Cape accounted for 10%; Free State and North West each accounted for 6% respectively; Mpumalanga accounted for 5%; Northern Cape accounted for 4%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.963,394. This increase represents an 11.6% positivity rate.

31 deaths have also been recorded. Of these, 10 occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours. The cumulative Covid-19 deaths are 101,250 to date.

25.314,119 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors 

Shanghai Covid-19 curbs drag on despite officials declaring victory

Locked in their homes as neighbours celebrate freedom, hundreds of thousands of Shanghai residents are finding the path out of lockdown more complicated than the victory trumpeted by Chinese state media.

The metropolis of 25 million people was closed in sections from late March after becoming the epicentre of China’s worst Covid-19 outbreak in two years.

After gradually relaxing some rules over the past few weeks, authorities on Wednesday began allowing residents in areas deemed low-risk to move around freely again.

But while many celebrated with boozy street parties and shopping sprees, swathes of the city remained dormant with multiple neighbourhoods returning to lockdown on Thursday over new infections.

Liu, a 29-year-old woman in Shanghai’s Minhang district, told AFP her apartment compound had been hastily resealed on Thursday morning after a man in one of the buildings returned an “abnormal” Covid-19 test result.

She said shocked neighbours bombarded the compound’s group chats with complaints that the lockdown was “never-ending”, while many waited at the gate for couriers to deliver laptops they had left at offices on Wednesday — the first day back at their desks.

“I had just one happy day yesterday,” Liu said.

Additional reporting by AFP