SA records nine deaths, 6 381 new Covid-19 cases

THE National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said yesterday it had recorded 6 381 new Covid-19 cases in South Africa.

“Today the institute reports 6 381 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 038 075.

“This increase represents a 26.4% positivity rate.”

As per the National Department of Health, a further nine Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 975 to date.

“A total of 19 785 993 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors,” the NICD said.

It said the Gauteng province continues to be the epicentre of infections for the country as it accounts for 70% of the day’s new Covid-19 cases.

This is followed by KwaZulu-Natal which accounted for 10% of new cases and the Western Cape which accounted for 6%.

Mpumalanga accounted for 5% of cases while Limpopo accounted for 3% and the Free State and North West provinces each accounted for 2% of new cases.

The Eastern Cape and Northern Cape provinces recorded the lowest numbers and each only accounted for 1% of new Covid-19 cases.

The NICD said the proportion of positive new cases/total new tests on Monday was 26.4% which is higher than that which was recorded on Sunday (23.8%).

The organisation said it continues to see an increase in hospitalisations.

In the past 24 hours, the NICD recorded 175 hospital admissions.

As of 5pm on Monday, the health department’s dashboard confirmed that a total of 133 468 individuals were vaccinated in the past 24 hours.

[email protected]

IOL