Cape Town – A total of 13 719 new Covid-19 cases have been identified in South Africa, with the increase representing a 26.1% positivity rate.
This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 356 049, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Friday.
According to the National Department of Health, a further 450 Covid-19-related deaths have been reported, bringing the total fatalities to 69 075 to date.
A total of 14 477 689 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (33%), followed by the Western Cape (21%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 11% of the new cases; Mpumalanga for 8%; Limpopo and North West each for 7%; Eastern Cape for 6%; Free State for 4%; and the Northern Cape for 3% of today’s new cases.
The total number of cases today (13 719) is lower than yesterday (14 858) but higher than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days (12 410). The seven-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased, the NICD said.
There has been an increase of 721 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
#COVID19 UPDATE: A total of 52,474 tests were conducted in the last 24 hrs, with 13,719 new cases, which represents a 26.1% positivity rate. A further 450 #COVID19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 69,075 to date. Read more: https://t.co/dMpV2jiAhi pic.twitter.com/cls3WO9i3m
— NICD (@nicd_sa) July 23, 2021
Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has urged those involved in the unrest in Gauteng and KZN to get tested if they experience Covid-19 symptoms.
She said the Correctional Services Department had told her “quite a number of people who were arrested have tested positive”.
At a briefing early on Friday, she said: “In contact tracing, (people) will have to say where they have been and perhaps some are staying away for fear of saying so.
“But community members must appeal to those people, to protect their own families and communities.”
All countries must work together to investigate the origin of the coronavirus that sparked the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday, a day after China rejected the proposed scope of a second phase.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, asked about China's rejection, told a UN briefing in Geneva: "This is not about politics, it's not about a blame game.
"It is about basically a requirement we all have to try to understand how the pathogen came into the human population. In this sense, countries really have the responsibility to work together and to work with WHO in a spirit of partnership."
Athleisure clothing chain Lorna Jane Pty Ltd was fined A$5 million by an Australian court on Friday after claiming its garments could prevent Covid-19, which a judge labelled as “exploitive, predatory and potentially dangerous”.
The company, with 134 stores across Australia, New Zealand, the US and Singapore, was sued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last year after saying its LJ Shield Activewear range “eliminated”, “stopped the spread” and “protected wearers” against the coronavirus.
The misleading claims, which centred on the “groundbreaking technology” of the company's garments, were made on in-store signs, on its website, on social media website Instagram, in emails to customers and in media releases, the consumer watchdog said.
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