The current surge in infections was seeing ’a sustained downward trend’
ANOTHER 160 people have died as a result of Covid-19, while over 2197 more people have tested positive for the coronavirus in South Africa on Tuesday, the department of Health said.
This comes as 175 more people have been admitted to hospitals in the public and private sector, taking the number of coronavirus patients in the country to 8150 around the country.
More than 2.8 million people have tested positive for the virus in SA to date.
NICD spokesperson Sinenhlanhla Jimoh said the current surge in infections was seeing “a sustained downward trend”.
“Today the institute reports 2197 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 886 331. This increase represents a 6.1% positivity rate,” she said.
Jimoh added that the majority of new coronavirus cases remained in the KZN province, along with the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.
She said: “The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (27%), followed by Western Cape (17%). Eastern Cape accounted for 15%; Free State accounted for 14%; Gauteng Province accounted for 12%; Mpumalanga and Northern Cape each accounted for 6% respectively; North West accounted for 4%; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases”.
More than 86376 people have succumbed to the virus in South Africa as of Tuesday, while over 17.4 million people have conducted laboratory tests to determine if they were infected with the virus.
Commenting on the 7-day moving average, Jimoh said: “The total number of cases today (n= 2 197) is higher than yesterday (n= 1 504) but lower than the average number of new cases per day over the 7 preceding days (n= 3 114). The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased”.
IOL