Cape Town – A total of 756 new Covid-19-related cases were reported in South Africa on Tuesday.
This brings the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in the country to 1 546 735, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement. A total of 548 new cases were identified on Monday.
There have been 78 more deaths, compared to 47 yesterday: Gauteng 45, KwaZulu-Natal 9, Free State 7, Limpopo 7, Mpumalanga 4, Western Cape 3, Northern Cape 2 and Eastern Cape 1. No deaths were recorded in North West and the death toll now stands at 52 788.
The cumulative recoveries of 1 473 588 represent a recovery rate of 95%. The total number of tests conducted is 9 844 835, with 24 842 tests completed since the last report.
The City of London financial centre, which has resembled a ghost town since the coronavirus swept the world last year, is likely to see most workers return to their offices after the pandemic, the City’s political leader said.
Catherine McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, told BBC radio she was confident that trade would return for the cafes, pubs, restaurants and other businesses that rely on the usually teeming crowds of office workers.
"What people are telling us is that they are expecting their central office base to remain at the core of their business with people coming in three or four days, working different hours, so we are expecting the bulk of the return," McGuinness said."
Germany is due to receive the first small delivery of Johnson & Johnson's single dose Covid-19 vaccine in mid-April, Health Minister Jens Spahn said, giving the country a further shot to help speed up its sluggish rollout.
"It will only be a small delivery at first," Spahn told an online event, adding he expected a shipment of around 275 000 doses in the week of 12 April.
’’But at least - because we have been waiting a long time for the first delivery from J&J - we will get the first deliveries of the vaccine in mid-April, and it will then be ramped up to millions of doses, as is the case with all deliveries."
J&J's shot, which was approved by European Union regulators on 11 March, is the fourth to be endorsed for use in the EU after vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford University and Moderna.
China carried out about 4.3 million vaccinations against Covid-19 on March 29, bringing the total number administered to 110.96 million, according to data released by the National Health Commission on Tuesday.
Brazil’s health system is buckling under a growing number of Covid-19 patents needing intensive care. Across the country there are over 6 000 people waiting for an ICU bed, according to government data, and many are dying waiting in line.
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