SA has 79,177 actives cases of Covid-19

South Africa has 79,177 active cases of Covid-19, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

The country has reported 3,520 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3.576 379. 

This increase represents a 10.0% positivity rate. 

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (25%), followed by Western Cape (21%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 15%; Limpopo accounted for 11%; Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 6%; and Northern Cape accounted for 5% 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 103 deaths and of these, 10 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 93,949 to date,” said the NICD.

21.968,562 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 163 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

#COVID19 UPDATE: 35,307 tests were conducted in the last 24hrs, with 3,520 new cases, representing a 10% positivity rate. 10 #COVID19 related deaths have been reported in the last 24-48hrs, total fatalities amount to 93,949 to date. See more here: https://t.co/3Wykz3onoZ pic.twitter.com/zIBayYDaVL

— NICD (@nicd_sa) January 21, 2022

Covid-19 cases and deaths soar, but signs of slowdown

The average number of daily Covid-19 cases passed a record three million globally this week, while deaths surged for a second week in a row.

Here is a state of play based on AFP’s database.

– Three million cases –

The number of average daily cases leapt to a record 3.1 million this week to Thursday, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous seven days according to an AFP tally.

However the upsurge was less marked than in previous weeks, when the highly contagious Omicron variant began its rampage.

The confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.

– Upsurge in Asia –

The week’s main upsurge took place in Asia — particularly in India — where the number of daily cases increased by 57 percent. There was also an increase of 36 percent in the Latin America-Caribbean zone and the Middle East, which was up 32 percent.

However, there was a let up in areas were Omicron appeared first, with cases falling by a tenth in Africa and six percent in the United States and Canada.

Although infections increased by nine percent in Europe, this was still at a slower pace than previous weeks.

Oceania also saw an improvement with cases down by almost a third.

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– Main spikes –

Nepal saw the biggest increase in new infections, with cases rocketing by 330 percent.

It was followed by Kosovo with an increase of 281 percent, Kazakhstan 271 percent, Iraq 256 percent and Japan 252 percent.

– Main drops –

Ireland saw the biggest drop in new cases, with a 56 percent decline, followed by Namibia with a 51 percent drop, then Cyprus with 35 percent, while the United Kingdom and Greece saw 32 percent fewer cases each.

– US still has most cases –

The United States remains by far the country with the biggest number of new cases with 751,900 per day on average, a decrease of six percent from the previous week.

Next in line came France with 337,200, an increase of 15 percent, and India with 271,500, an increase of 57 percent.

On a per capita basis, the country with the biggest number of new cases this week remained Denmark with 3,826 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. It was followed by Israel with 3,589, France 3,496, Portugal 2,796 and Slovenia 2,733.

– Deaths on the rise again –

At a global level the number of Covid-linked deaths took off again, up nine percent compared to the previous week to 7,526 per day.

The US mourned the most daily deaths with 1,969 per day, followed by Russia with 698 and India with 380.

The countries reporting the highest death rates in proportion to their population were Trinidad and Tobago with 8.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria with 8.50, Slovakia and Croatia with 7.2 each and Bosnia with seven.

Additional reporting by AFP