Johannesburg - Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced 260 more Covid-19 related deaths and 3946 new infections on Thursday night.
This takes South Africa’s Covid-19 death toll to 11 270, and infections, to over 572 865. South Africa has the fifth most Covid-19 infections in the world, behind only USA, Brazil, India and Russia.
Although the number of new infections has slowed in South Africa, as has the rate of testing in the past week, daily deaths remain high.
In the past three days, 649 people have died in Covid-19 related deaths. On Tuesday, 130 people were announced to have died, another 259 on Wednesday and 260 more on Thursday night’s daily update.
South Africa’s coronavirus death toll now stands at 11 270, with a majority of the deaths coming from the Western Cape (3506 deaths), Gauteng (2791), the Eastern Cape (2400), and KwaZulu-Natal (1563).
Of the latest 260 deaths, Mkhize said the most deaths came from the Free State and the Eastern Cape provinces.
Eastern Cape - 68 deaths
Free State - 62
KZN - 39
Gauteng - 30
Western Cape - 21
Northern Cape - 8
“This brings the cumulative total of reported Covid-19 related deaths to 11 270,” said the minister.
“We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the health care workers who treated the deceased.
“The number of recoveries currently stands at 437 617 which translates to a recovery rate of 76%,” said Mkhize.
This means seven-and-a-half people out of every 10 who had Covid-19 since it first arrived in the country in March, have survived the virus.
South Africa has tested just over 3.3 million people since March and in the past 24 hours, just over 20 000 people were tested.
| Deaths | Infections | Recoveries | ||
| Western Cape | 3506 | 100976 | 89529 | |
| Gauteng | 2791 | 195820 | 154392 | |
| Eastern Cape | 2400 | 83002 | 78385 | |
| KZN | 1563 | 102233 | 57525 | |
| Free State | 476 | 30049 | 14911 | |
| Mpumalanga | 167 | 20111 | 16794 | |
| North West | 150 | 22483 | 12559 | |
| Limpopo | 141 | 11019 | 9728 | |
| Northern Cape | 76 | 7122 | 3794 | |
Meanwhile, reports this week said President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to downgrade the lockdown to level 2.
Sources have said that the level 2 of the lockdown will also come with the ban on travel, alcohol and cigarettes being lifted.
But, Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said in an affidavit filed with the North Gauteng High Court that the temporary ban on the sale of alcohol would be regularly re-evaluated.
On Wednesday, Dlamini Zuma filed an opposing affidavit following an urgent application by several wine farmers, the Southern Africa Agri Initiative (Saai), and others.
In opposing the application, she said an assessment of the number of Covid-19 cases in the country and the availability of healthcare infrastructure and staff would form part of the assessment as to how long the ban would remain in place.
IOL