NEW daily coronavirus infections in South Africa have doubled to 8 561 new Covid-19 cases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said yesterday.
This comes while another 28 deaths due to Covid-19 complications were reported on Wednesday.
“Today the institute reports 8 561 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 976 613.
“This increase represents a 16.5% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 28 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 871 to date.
“A total of 19 529 031 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors,” the NICD said.
The organisation said the majority of the day’s newly recorded cases once again came from the Gauteng province which accounted for 72% of new Covid-19 cases.
This is followed by the Western Cape which accounted for 7% of new cases, KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 6% while Mpumalanga and the North West each accounted for 4% of new cases respectively.
Limpopo accounted for 3%, the Free State accounted for 2% and the Eastern Cape accounted for 1% of Wednesday’s new cases.
The Northern Cape accounted for less than 1% of the day’s new cases.
The NICD said the drastic rise in Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks in the Gauteng province may be a sign of a widespread resurgence.
An important notice by the organisation was that it stated provinces will experience the beginning and ending of waves at different time periods. ‘
It confirmed South Africa was entering into the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections and has urged citizens to take measures to reduce the spread of the infection.
The NICD said the best way to curb the spread was to get vaccinated.
“Protect others from getting sick and be part of helping to prevent coronavirus transmission. Don’t let your guard down,” the organisation added.
The NICD said the proportion of positive new cases/total new tested on Wednesday is 16.5% which is higher than that which was recorded on Tuesday (10.7%).
There has also been a significant increase in hospital admissions, the NICD said.
In the past 24 hours, a total of 135 patients were admitted to hospital.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL