Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation at 8pm on Sunday night, on developments in the country’s response to Covid-19.
The Presidency said his address would follow meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council, the President’s Co-ordinating Council, and the Cabinet.
The Health Department said South Africa recorded 16 302 new Covid-19 cases and 151 deaths on Sunday.
“Today 151 deaths have been reported, bringing the total to 64 289 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 1 922 601, with a recovery rate of 87.6%,” the department said in a Tweet.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, said the 16 302 new Covid-19 cases brought the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 195 599.
It said the increase represented a 30.4% positivity rate.
“The total number of cases today (16 302) is lower than yesterday (21 610) and lower than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days (18 958),” said the NICD.
It said that a total of 13 901 847 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
Gauteng accounted for a majority of new cases with 52% of the new cases reported in the province. Western Cape accounted for 12 % of the new cases, and KwaZulu-Natal 9%.
Limpopo and Mpumalanga both accounted for 7%.
“North West accounted for 6%, Eastern Cape accounted for 3%, Free State accounted for 2%, and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases,” said the NICD.
In the past 24 hours, there was an increase of 459 hospital admissions, it said.
IOL