Daily Covid-19 update: Slowdown in tests as 213 deaths reported

South Africa only reported an additional 3,740 confirmed Covid-19 cases on Monday – the lowest daily tally since late June.

In a late night statement, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, announced that 16,911 tests were conducted since the last report on Sunday evening. In that statement, 30,318 tests were logged.

The statement did not indicate the reason for the lower number of tests being reported. However, both the number tests at private and public institutions were significantly lower: private sector tests on Monday came to 7,123 (13,877 on Sunday) and public sector tests stood at 9,788 (16,441 on Sunday).

The number of deaths reported on Monday was 213 with 57 from the Eastern Cape, 39 from Gauteng, 11 from KwaZulu Natal and 64 from the Free State. The Western Cape reported 30 deaths, the Northern Cape 2 and Mpumalanga 10.

The official death toll attributed to the virus now stands at 10,621.

With the total number of confirmed cases standing at 563,598 and the total number of recoveries at 417,200, the official recovery rate is 74%.

As of Monday, the total number of global fatalities came to 728,013, according to the World Health Organisation.

With 19,7 million infections globally, South Africa’s total number of infections has kept it in fifth place globally for several weeks. Russia will in all likelihood break through the 900,000 case mark on Tuesday while Brazil has now recoreded in excess of 3 million cases. The United States will also break through the 5 million case mark this week.

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