Covid-19 update: 1,287 new cases reported, vaccine count surpasses 33 million

As of Saturday, 19 March, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 3,703,329 with 1,287 new cases identified, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed.

This represents a 5.0% positivity rate.

11 Covid-19 related deaths – of which 3 occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours – was reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 99,879.

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There were 14 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

The total number of recoveries stood at 3,588,264 with a recovery rate of 96,9%. South Africa currently has 15,186 active cases.

23,569,125 tests in total have been conducted to date in both public and private sectors.

The total number of vaccines administered in the country so far stands at 33,008,136 as of 19 March.

Provincial breakdown

The majority of the new Covid-19 cases came from Gauteng (470), followed by Western Cape (319) and KwaZulu-Natal (270).

North West (62) then follows, while Free State and Mpumalanga recorded 45 and 39 new cases respectively.

Eastern Cape recorded 34 cases followed by Limpopo (33) and Northern Cape (22) had the lowest cases.