Cape Town - South Africa registered 3 357 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, with eight related deaths occurring in the past 24-48 hours.
“Today the institute reports 3 357 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 622 210,” said the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in a statement released on Saturday.
This increase represented an 8.9% positivity rate, the NICD said.
There has been an ongoing audit exercise conducted across all of South Africa’s nine provinces to address a backlog of cases and deaths, the Department of Health said in a statement last month.
“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 48 deaths and of these, eight occurred in the past 24–48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 95 817 to date,” the NICD added.
The institute said 22 443 199 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng which accounted for 32% of new cases, followed by Western Cape at 15%.
Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 13%; Mpumalanga at 11%; Limpopo and North West each at 9% respectively; Free State at 7%; Eastern Cape at 2%; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested on Saturday was 8.9%, and is the same as Friday (8.9%). The 7-day average is 9.4% Saturday, which is lower than yesterday (9.6%).
A total of 62 829 vaccines doses were administered in the last 24 hours.
The NICD also said there has been an increase of 65 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
Members of the public are urged to get vaccinated for Covid-19, ensure that your mask is worn properly to cover your nose, avoid unnecessary gatherings but if you must, gather in ventilated spaces.
It is also important to keep a social distance of one metre or more and wash hands regularly in the day with soap and water.
IOL