SA has 14,743 active cases of Covid-19

South Africa has 14,743 active cases of Covid-19, from a total of 3.698,803 cases reported in the country.

1,980 new cases have been identified in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, announced on Wednesday.

This increase represents a 6.2% positivity rate.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (39%), followed by Western Cape (25%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 16%; Mpumalanga accounted for 5%; Eastern Cape. Free State and North West accounted for 4% each; Limpopo accounted for 2%; Northern Cape accounted for 1% 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 40 deaths and of these, 3 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,767 to date,” said the NICD.

23.485,052 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 46 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. 

Israel’s ministry of health said on Wednesday it had recorded two cases of new Covid variant, but which officials said they were not unduly worried about.

The strain, combining two sub-variants of the Omicron version of the Covid-19 virus – dubbed BA.1 and BA.2 – was recorded during PCR tests on two passengers arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.

“This variant is still unknown around the world,” the ministry statement read.

“The two cases of the combined strain, which have been discovered so far, suffered from mild symptoms of fever, headaches and muscle dystrophy, and do not require a special medical response,” it added.

Israel’s pandemic response chief, Salman Zarka, played down the risks.

“The phenomenon of combined variants is well known,” Zarka told Army Radio. “At this stage, we are not worried about it leading to serious cases”.

READ MORE: Israel records new Covid variant

Additional reporting by AFP