Nearly 4000 new Covid-19 cases reported in SA in last 24 hours, death toll now at 1831

A security guard checks the body temperature of a resident at a community health cente Picture: Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo

A security guard checks the body temperature of a resident at a community health cente Picture: Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo

Published Jun 19, 2020

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Durban - As the country's number of Covid-19 cases continue to increase on an average of 2500 to 3000 new cases being reported each day, 47 825 people have recovered from a virus that has claimed the lives of nearly half a million people around the world. 

On Friday, the Health Ministry announced that 3825 new cases of Covid-19 had been recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of confirmed cases in South Africa to 87 715. 

The death toll has also increased by 94 to 1 831.

"Regrettably, we report a further 94 Covid-19 related deaths; 27 from Gauteng, seven from

KwaZulu Natal, and 60 from the Western Cape," the Ministry announced.

Furthermore, 1 260 434 tests have been completed in total of which 32 336 new tests are reported. 

This week, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal has committed to clearing the backlog of tests. 

Western Cape premier, Alan Winde, said this week that they had cleared their backlog. 

He said on Thursday, that a backlog in testing, which reached up to 27 000 tests at its worst, had been completely cleared.

"We will continue to track the situation to determine whether the NHLS can continue to process tests without developing a new backlog before reviewing our decision to implement a risk-adjusted testing strategy which focuses on providing testing to residents which need it most, including healthcare workers, those already in hospital, those over the age of 55, people in old-aged homes and people with comorbidities which would put them at additional risk," he said.

The KZN Covid-19 tests backlog had been reduced from 29 000 to 11 000 and is expected to be cleared by the end of next week. Sibulele Bandezi, the KZN area manager for the NHLS, said each day, the backlog was being reduced.

Globally, more than eight million people have tested positive for Covid-19 with 4 576,536 recoveries. 

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