Covid-19 update: 2,226 new cases as vaccine count edges closer to 30 million

As of Sunday, 30 January, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 3,603,856 with 2,226 new cases identified, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed.

This represents a 9.5% positivity rate.

117 Covid-19 related deaths – of which 15 occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours – was reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 95,022.

There has been an increase of 23 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

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The total number of recoveries stood at 3,443,535 with a recovery rate of 95,6%. The country currently has 65,299 active cases.

22,251,589 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 29,812,348.

Provincial breakdown

The majority of the new Covid-19 cases came from Gauteng (756), followed by Western Cape (351) and Mpumalanga (276).

KwaZulu-Natal (261) then follows, while Limpopo and North West recorded 157 and 147 new cases respectively.

Free State recorded 128 cases followed by Eastern Cape (99) and Northern Cape (56) had the lowest cases for Sunday.

New Covid variant

Earlier this week, the NICD indicated that the latest known Covid-19 variant – BA.2 – is not a cause for concern yet.

NICD held a meeting on Wednesday, 26 January as part of their Covid-19 series: Decoding the Science. They discussed issues including vaccine efficacy and the immune response to Omicron.

The new version of the virus is a descendent of the Omicron variant (now referred to as BA.1) that was responsible for the country’s fourth wave of infections.

BA.2 was first identified in South Africa and India in late December 2021.

Although other sub-lineages have been identified, they have not been in the public eye due to the increase in cases of people who have contracted the BA.2 variant.