New COVID-19 cases dip under 600

The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) reports that at least 581 new COVID-19 cases have been identified in the country at a positivity rate of 4.5%.

The new cases brings the cumulative tally of COVID-19 cases up to some 3.7 million since the outbreak of the virus two years ago.

“The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (275), followed by Western Cape (118).

“KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 109, Free State 16, Mpumalanga 16 and North West 15 respectively; Eastern Cape 11 and Northern Cape 14 each accounted for 2% respectively and Limpopo accounted for 1% (7) of today’s new cases,” the NICD said.

The institute explained that the low incidence of deaths recorded due to the virus may be explained by a backlog.

“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 4 deaths and of these, 1 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99 970 to date.

“There has been an increase of 21 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said.

Meanwhile, the NDOH’s vaccination programme continues with some 74 246 vaccines administered in the past 24 hour reporting period.

This brings the total number of vaccines administered to at least 33.4 million doses since the start of the rollout.