Cape Town - South Africa recorded more than 5 900 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.
“Today the institute reports 5 920 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 546 808,” the NICD said on Thursday.
A total of 41 438 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, and the 5 920 new cases represented a positivity rate of 14.4%.
The NICD revealed that the majority of tests were conducted in the private sector (52.9%), with 47.1% in the public sector.
For the second day in a row, the Western Cape contributed the majority of South Africa’s new cases, followed by Gauteng and then KwaZulu-Natal.
“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of Covid-19 mortality cases reported,” NICD said.
“Today, the NDoH reports 159 deaths and of these, 51 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 92 989 to date,” NICD adds.
The ongoing audit exercise across all provinces was informed by South Africa’s health department on January 6.
Hospital admissions increased by 293 patients in the last 24 hours across both private and public sectors, however, the total number of current hospital admissions per day shows a consistent decrease.
Current hospital admissions per day in South Africa:
- Monday: 8 783
- Tuesday: 8 535
- Wednesday: 8 513
- Thursday: 8 223
The institure said that 86 351 vaccinations were administered on Thursday, increasing by more than 10 000 compared to Wednesday’s total (72 871).
South Africa’s smallest and most populated province, Gauteng, continues to lead the country with the amount of administered vaccines per day.
In Gauteng, 26 137 vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours, followed by 14 189 in the KwaZulu-Natal and 12 917 in the Western Cape.
Breakdown of new cases per province:
- Western Cape: 1 491
- Gauteng: 1 198
- KwaZulu-Natal: 1 142
- Eastern Cape: 559
- Limpopo: 524
- North West: 293
- Mpumalanga: 278
- Free State: 218
- Northern Cape: 217
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