Covid-19 update: 7999 new cases bring SA’s total to 860,964

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,605,583 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Sunday.


As of Sunday, South Africa has recorded a total of 860,964 positive cases of coronavirus, with 7999 cases identified since the last report, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced.

170 more deaths have been reported: 94 from Eastern Cape, 11 from Free State, 3 from Gauteng, 4 from KwaZulu-Natal, 4 from Northern Cape and 54 from Western Cape.

This brings the total deaths to 23,276.

“We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the health workers who treated the deceased,” said Mkhize.

Picture: Health department

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,605,583 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Sunday.

At least 71,660,020 cases of coronavirus have been registered. Of these, at least 45,087,800 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections however.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

On Saturday, 11,332 new deaths and 631,878 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were the United States with 3,007 new deaths, followed by Brazil with 686 and Mexico with 685.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 297,843 deaths from 16,067,031 cases. At least 6,246,605 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 181,123 deaths from 6,880,127 cases, India with 143,019 deaths from 9,857,029 cases, Mexico with 113,704 deaths from 1,241,436 cases, and Italy with 64,036 deaths from 1,825,775 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 154 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Peru with 111, Italy with 106, and Spain with 102.

Europe overall has 477,631 deaths from 22,049,115 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean 470,404 deaths from 13,995,401 infections, and the United States and Canada 311,169 deaths from 16,520,007 cases.

Asia has reported 205,005 deaths from 13,070,649 cases, the Middle East 84,428 deaths from 3,630,178 cases, Africa 56,004 deaths from 2,364,161 cases, and Oceania 942 deaths from 30,515 cases.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours might not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.

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