SA has 24,551 active cases of Covid-19

The number of active cases of Covid-19 in South Africa now stands at 24,551, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

This as 1,898 new Covid-19 cases have been identified in the past 24 hours, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.681 437. This increase represents a 6.3% positivity rate.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (37%), followed by Western Cape (22%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 17%, Free State and Mpumalanga each accounted for 6% respectively; Limpopo and North West each accounted for 4% respectively; Eastern Cape accounted for 3%; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% 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 18 deaths, and of these, 2 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,517 to date,” said the NICD.

23.196,880 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 60 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Despite there being no increase in the severity of Covid-19 cases, and an encouraging positivity rate, infections are not declining as hoped.

Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the department had hoped for a less than 5% positivity rate by the end of February.

South Africa’s current positivity rate is at 7%.

He reported spikes of infection in various districts, and a frustrating plateauing instead of a flattening of the virus cure.

Vaccination rates losing pace

The pace at which vaccinations are being administered is also not what Phaahla said the department had hoped for. Up to 70 000 doses were being administered per day, which has only recently picked up to over 100 000.

As of Thursday night, more than 31 million doses were administered, representing just over 19 million adults. 48% of the adult population has received at least one jab.

Phaahla expressed concern that the 70% goal for population immunity had still not been reached, and noted the 18 to 34 year-old age cohort was still lagging far behind, with it currently only at 34%.

Without reaching 70% of the population being vaccinated, we cannot fully integrate with the world, Phaahla continued.

The country has the stock and capacity to reach 70%, but too few new people are being vaccinated.

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Additional reporting by Nica Richards