CAPE TOWN: South Africa recorded 356 new Covid-19 cases and 17 deaths on Thursday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has said.
“Today the institute reports 356 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 924 978.
“This increase represents a 1.1% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 17 Covid-19-related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 452 to date.
“ A total of 18 835 534 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors,” the NICD said.
The organisation said the majority of new cases for Thursday came from Gauteng, which accounted for 34% of cases, followed by KwaZulu-Natal accounting for 19% of cases. The Western Cape accounted for 12% while the Northern Cape accounted for 11%. The Free State accounted for 9%, the North West for 5%, while Limpopo and Mpumalanga accounted for 4% of cases respectively. The Eastern Cape only accounted for 3% of the day’s new cases.
The NICD said the number of cases on Thursday was an increase on cases reported on Wednesday (305 cases).
In the past 24 hours, the NICD reported that there had been an increase, with 41 hospital admissions.
According to the Health Department’s vaccine dashboard, as of 5pm on Thursday, a total of 130 319 vaccines had been administered.
Gauteng has administered the most vaccines in the past 24 hours, as the dashboard records a total of 36 181 vaccines administered in the province, with the Western Cape following with 20 811 vaccines administered, and the Eastern Cape with 17 124 vaccines administered.
KwaZulu-Natal administered 14 758, Limpopo 12 634, Free State 8 827, Mpumalanga 8 418 and North West 8 350.
The lowest number of vaccines administered was in the Northern Cape, with only 3 216.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL