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A total of 280 more people have been admitted to hospital for Covid-19 treatment and 10,173 new cases have been identified in the past 24 hours.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,757,191.
The NICD further reports that the increase represents an 18.1% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 274 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 81,461 to date.”
The institute also confirmed that over 16 million tests had been conducted to date in both the public and private sectors.
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says the third wave of Covid-19 infections is behaving in an unpredictable manner as cases of the pandemic in South Africa continue to fluctuate.
Briefing the media on Friday morning regarding government’s efforts in the fight against Covid-19, Phaahla said the third wave was behaving differently from the first and second waves.
He said the country’s case trajectory had shown an initial downward trend since 9 July. However, since 13 August cases started to trend upwards again.
“This fluctuation can also be seen in individual provinces such as the Western Cape, Northern Cape, and the Free State especially. The encouraging thing is that Gauteng, which was the first and significant epicentre, has sustained a continuous downward trend,” Phaahla said.
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A further 2.2 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses arrived in South Africa on Saturday, thanks to a donation by the US via the Covax facility.
The arrival of the vaccines was confirmed by health minister Joe Phaahla on Friday.
Phaahla said the arrival of the vaccine doses would help ensure the country has a more stable supply of the vaccine.
The country received 5.6 million Covid-19 vaccine doses last month.
Although more Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses are needed, the department said the priority at this stage was to ensure all willing South African adults get a vaccine dose.
Compiled by Kaunda Selisho, additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe
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