Current surge of Covid-19 infections showing signs of sustained downward trend – NICD

The current surge in Covid-19 infections seems to be showing signs of a sustained downward trend, says the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) as South Africa records 7,338 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2.836, 773.

This increase represents a 13.3% positivity rate.

“Although the total number of cases today is higher than yesterday and higher than the average number of new cases per day over the previous seven days, the number of new cases and positivity rate have decreased nationally compared to last week,” says NICD Acting Executive Director Prof Adrian Puren.

“While there have been provincial disparities in the timing and extent of the third resurgence, he adds that all nine provinces are currently exhibiting a drop in daily new cases. The provinces of Gauteng and Limpopo have already met the end-of-wave threshold criteria.”

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (26%), followed by Western Cape (22%). Eastern Cape accounted for 17%; Free State accounted for 11%; Gauteng Province accounted for 8%; Northern Cape & North West each accounted for 5% respectively; Mpumalanga accounted for 4%, and Limpopo Province accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.

The number of hospitalisations and deaths have also decreased compared to last week.

The country further reported 253 Covid-19 related deaths, bringing total fatalities to 84,152 to date.

A total of almost 14 million vaccine doses have been administered, with over 10 million people fully vaccinated as of 7 September 2021 in South Africa, said the NICD.

The coronavirus has killed at least 4.583,765 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data. 

The United States is the worst-affected country with 650,511 deaths, followed by Brazil with 584,171, India with 441,411, Mexico 264,541 and Peru 198,568.

Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were the US with 1,081, followed by Mexico with 1,071 and Russia with 797. 

Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde. Additional reporting by AFP