SA has 100,861 active cases of Covid-19

South Africa has 100,861 active cases of Covid-19, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

As of Friday, the country has reported a total of 3.552,043 positive cases of Covid-19, with 5,244 new cases identified in the past 24 hours.

This increase represents a 13% positivity rate.

The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape (26%), followed by Gauteng (20%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 19%; Eastern Cape and Limpopo each accounted for 9% respectively; Northern Cape accounted for 5%; Free State, Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 4% respectively of today’s new cases. 

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 128 deaths and of these, 59 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 93,117 to date,” said the NICD.

21.736,300 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors

There has been an increase of 274 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Gauteng officially out of Covid fourth wave, health dept confirms

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says the Gauteng province has this week officially exited the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, with South Africa’s eight other provinces having reached their peaks of the fourth wave.

“We can now officially say that Gauteng has technically exited the fourth wave this week, and all other provinces have reached their peaks and are now on the decline,” Phaahla said.

The minister was speaking on Friday during the Department of Health’s first virtual briefing for 2022, on government’s efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and its national vaccination rollout programme.

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While Gauteng had exited the fourth wave, which was driven by the Omicron variant, Phaahla said the decrease in new infections in other provinces was not a steep decline.

He said compared to the previous waves of Covid infections, the fourth wave had fewer reported hospitalisations and deaths.

“So, this virus rises steeply but when it goes down, it goes down slowly but at least it’s going down and this is encouraging,” Phaahla said.

READ MORE: Gauteng officially out of Covid fourth wave, health dept confirms

Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe