CAPE TOWN – The Covid-19 infections in South Africa seems to be on a downward trend as 5 309 new cases were reported on Saturday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.
“The current surge in Covid-19 infections seems to be showing signs of a sustained downward trend. Today the institute reports 5 309 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 854 234,” it said.
“This increase represents a 10.7% positivity rate.”
The Health Department said 143 deaths were reported on Saturday, bringing the total to 84 751 deaths.
“The cumulative number of recoveries now stands at 2 663 607 with a recovery rate of 93.3%”
According to the department, to date 14 670 161 vaccines have been administered.
The NICD said that to date, 17 037 271 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.
“The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (25%), followed by Western Cape (21%),” the institute said.
“Eastern Cape accounted for 16%; Free State accounted for 9%; Gauteng Province and Northern Cape each accounted for 8% respectively; Mpumalanga accounted for 6%; North West accounted for 5%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.”
The NICD said that the total number of cases on Saturday was lower than Friday’s 5 885 reported cases and lower than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days which stood at 5 746.
“The seven-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased,” it said.
“There has been an increase of 184 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.”
IOL