14796 new Covid-19 infections on Christmas day, with nearly 300 more deaths
A cumulative total of 6 378 007 tests have been conducted, and more than 110 people have died in the Eastern Cape alone.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has remembered the more than 50,000 people who have lost their lives to Covid-19 during a webinar on 4 March 2021 hosted by the National Press Club and the GCIS. Picture: AFP/File/GUILLEM SARTORIO
As of Friday 25 December, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases is 983 359 with 14796 new cases having been confirmed.
The Christmas infection rated was confirmed in a statement by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.
A cumulative total of 6 378 007 tests have been conducted, representing an increase of more 52 223 tests since the Christmas Eve report.
293 more people passed away on Friday, with 115 of these being in the Eastern Cape. Total deaths now stand at 26 276.
A total of 830251 people have recovered from the virus.
The Covid-19 infection statistics for Christmas day.
UK wrong about SA’s Covid-19 variant
Mkhize on Friday slammed Secretary for Health in the United Kingdom, Matt Hancock, for claiming South Africa’s new Covid-19 variant is more transmissible than the UK’s.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Hancock said that two cases of a new coronavirus variant had been identified and that both cases were close contacts of people who had recently returned from South Africa.
As a result, the UK banned travel from South Africa.
However, Mkhize said the perception that the variant in SA has been a major factor in the second wave in UK is incorrect.
“There is evidence that the UK variant developed earlier than the South African variant. On 14 December, the UK reported to the WHO that a variant had been identified and traced back to 20 September 2020 in Kent, south east England – approximately a month before the South African variant appears to have developed.
“This variant has a mutation occurring at a site common with the South African variant, although they are two completely independent lineages. The UK variant is thought to be driving the second wave that the UK are experiencing currently.
“In addition, the UK variant has already been identified outside of the UK as reported by professor Neil Ferguson, a top British scientist who told the UK’s science and technology committee on 23 December that evidence from Denmark, a country with a relatively low infection rate, suggests that ‘almost certainly’ the new variant identified in the UK is already in the ‘great majority if not all’ European countries,” said Mkhize on Thursday.
He further slammed the incorrect rhetoric that the 501.V2 variant was more transmissible than the UK variant or may potentially cause more serious morbidity and mortality.
Mkhize said the UK’s decision to ban travel from South Africa was “unfortunate”.
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