A South African Health Worker is inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine shot at the Khayelitsha Hospital in Cape Town on February 17, 2021. (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / POOL / AFP)
As of Saturday, 27 March 2021, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases stands at 1,544, 466 with 1,387 new cases identified, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has confirmed.
46 more Covid-19 related deaths were reported, with 1 from Eastern Cape, 7 from Free State, 16 from Gauteng, 14 from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), 0 from Limpopo, 0 from Mpumalanga, 0 from North West, 0 from Northern Cape and 8 from Western Cape.
This brings the total number of Covid-19 related deaths to 52,648.
Recoveries now stand at 1,471,164, representing a recovery rate of 95%.
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A total of 9,779,615 tests have been completed with 27,553 new tests conducted since the last report.
The total number of vaccines administered is 231,605.
– New restrictions in Belgium, Poland –
Poland shuts kindergartens, sports facilities and more non-essential shops and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki urges Poles to spend Easter at home with their immediate families, but stops short of announcing restrictions on movement and a full lockdown.
Belgium limits access to non-medical services such as hairdressers for four weeks, and customers can only visit stores selling “non-essential” items such as clothing and books by appointment.
Next week, the last before Easter, only primary schools will remain open.
The Philippines announces that more than 24 million people in and around Manila will go into lockdown next week.
The tougher restrictions in the country’s economic heartland — which accounts for about a fifth of the population — come as more contagious variants of the virus fuel a resurgence in cases.
Chile, a world leader in coronavirus vaccinations where nearly one in three people have received a first dose, puts more than 80 percent of its population of 19 million in lockdown.
With new virus variants, believed to be more contagious, spreading across the continent, cases have been soaring in Chile despite its vaccination drive.
Kenya places Nairobi and nearby counties under partial lockdown and closes schools and bars in those areas as a deadly third wave of Covid-19 grips the country.
Brazil set a new daily Covid-19 death toll record of 3,650 on Friday, the health ministry says, as the pandemic spins out of control in Latin America’s largest economy.
Argentina registers nearly 13,000 new infections, the highest number in more than two months as the government suspends flights arriving from Brazil, Chile and Mexico.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warns that the number of critically Covid-19 patients is rising across war-wracked Yemen, urging assistance from donor countries and specialised groups
French authorities step up checks at airports and motorways to enforce a ban on movement between 19 different regions, including Paris, where the situation is described as “critical”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vows to stick with his planned unwinding of a coronavirus lockdown, relishing the prospect of a pint and a haircut even as scientists warn of new variants.
Wales becomes the first UK nation to lift restrictions, with up to six people allowed to meet outside from Saturday, a measure to be adopted in England on Monday.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,768,431 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 548,089 deaths followed by Brazil with 307,112 fatalities, Mexico with 200,862, India with 161,240 and Britain with 126,515 deaths.
These figures are based on daily tolls provided by health authorities in each country and exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organisations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.
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