Covid-19 update: 801 new cases reported in SA

South Africa has recorded a total of 3.685,120 cases of Covid-19, with 801 new cases identified in the past 24 hours.

This increase represents a 5.5% positivity rate, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, announced.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (32%), followed by Western Cape (20%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 15%; North West accounted for 11%; Mpumalanga accounted for 8%; Eastern Cape accounted for 6%; Free State and Limpopo each accounted for 3% respectively; Northern Cape accounted for 1%  of today’s new cases. 

“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 62 deaths and of these, 6 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,609 to date,” said the NICD.

23.259,839 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 28 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

Health experts call for Covid-19 restrictions to be dropped

The National Health Department said it will table recommendations on how to move forward with Covid-19 regulations before the National Coronavirus Command Council this week.

The department said this is because of the low infection rate, low mortality rate, high recovery rate and reduced pressure from healthcare staff who sacrificed their lives during the highest peak of the pandemic.

“The current situation allows for relaxed restrictions or regulations as part of efforts by the government to open the economy. However, this doesn’t replace vaccination because we continue to live with this deadly pandemic,” said spokesperson Foster Mohale.

“We urge people to vaccinate in numbers to boost their immunity against the Covid-19 virus, also for the country to achieve population immunity,” he added.

The department’s stance comes after epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist Professor Salim Abdool Karim said South Africa is ready to do away with public health measures – such as sanitising and outdoor mask-wearing.

During an interview with eNCA on Friday, Karim said, “We have reached a stage where we can change most of our public health measures at this point.

“We can get away from all of the sanitising and drop our outdoor mask mandate.”

Additional reporting by Narissa Subramoney