Covid-19 update: SA reports 8,920 new cases and 21 deaths

South Africa has identified 8,920 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 3.871,085. This increase represents a 23.1% positivity rate.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (39%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (22%). Western Cape accounted for 16%; Eastern Cape accounted for 7%; Free State accounted for 6%; North West accounted for 4%; Mpumalanga accounted for 3%; Northern Cape accounted for 2%; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases. There has been an increase of 150 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

The country has also reported 21 deaths and of these, 8 deaths occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours. The cumulative Covid-19 deaths are 100,630 to date.

24.804,199 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors

US mourns one million dead from Covid-19

The United States has crossed the threshold of one million deaths from Covid-19, the White House said on Thursday, as the nation seeks to turn the page on the pandemic despite threats of another surge.

“Today, we mark a tragic milestone,” President Joe Biden said in a statement that acknowledged the “unrelenting” pain of bereaved families, and urged Americans to remain vigilant as cases tick back up.

“One million empty chairs around the dinner table,” Biden said. “Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a nation forever changed.”

Biden’s announcement came as he chaired a global virtual Covid-19 summit, taking place as Europe also passed two million Covid-19 deaths, focused on efforts to bring the pandemic under control worldwide and prepare for future health emergencies.

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The US leader came to the summit hobbled by Congress’ failure to approve $22.5 billion in continued emergency Covid-19 funding, including for the international supply of vaccines, and he warned it was “critical” for lawmakers to keep financing testing, vaccines and treatments. 

America recorded its first Covid-19 death, on the West Coast, in early February 2020. By the next month, the virus was ravaging New York and the White House was predicting up to 240,000 deaths nationwide.

Additional reporting by AFP