Durban - South Africa has recorded 1 960 new cases of Covid-19 the last 24 hours, bringing the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases to 646 398.
On Friday, the Health Ministry announced that 113 more people had died from Covid-19-related illnesses. The total Covid-19 fatality count now stands at 15 378.
“Regrettably, we report 113 more Covid-19 related deaths: 19 from KwaZulu-Natal, 19 from Gauteng, 16 from Eastern Cape, 2 from Free State, 18 from Western Cape, 24 from Mpumalanga and 15 from Northern Cape. Our recoveries now stand at 574 587 which translates to a recovery rate of 88,9%,” the ministry said.
The total number of tests conducted to date is 3 884 166 with 20 713 new tests conducted since the last report
According to a weekly surveillance report by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, in the period 1 March 2020 through 5 September 2020, 3,335,910 laboratory tests for SARS-CoV-2 were conducted nationally.
The reported noted that the Northern Cape (336 per 100,000 persons) and Free State (283 per 100,000 persons) provinces had the highest testing rates in the past week, although all provinces have shown reduced testing rates over recent weeks.
"The percentage testing positive has been decreasing since the peak of 31.4% in week 29, and continued to decrease to 12.7% in week 36. Percentages testing positive were ≥20% in Northern Cape and Free State, between 10-19% in North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Eastern Cape, and <10% in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces in the past week," the report stated.
Testing volumes have continued to decrease since week 29, with 85,472 tests performed in week 36. All tests for samples collected in the previous week may not yet be reflected. Reduced testing volumes were observed over weekends and public holidays.
IOL