Cape Town – The cumulative number of detected Covid-19-related cases has risen to 653 444 after 1 923 new cases were identified, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday.
This comes after two days in which the country recorded less than 1 000 new cases.
’’Regrettably, we report 64 more Covid-19-related deaths: 24 from KwaZulu-Natal, 14 from Gauteng, 9 from Western Cape, 6 from Northern Cape and 11 from Mpumalanga. This brings the total number of Covid-19-related deaths to 15 705,’’ Mkhize said in a statement.
'’Our recoveries now stand at 584 195, which translates to a recovery rate of 89.4%.
“The cumulative number of tests conducted to date is 3 961 179, with 20 962 new tests conducted since the last report.’’
The chairperson of the Covid-19 ministerial advisory committee, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, speaking during a webinar on Covid-19 and how the Western Cape became Africa's epicentre, commended the role played by the province.
Karim highlighted that the province shared with the nation what they did right and wrong in dealing with the pandemic.
“I think we saw that when you are trying to deal with adversity, those who are most successful are those who understand our fundamental interdependence.
’’Those who have chosen to go with me first, it's all about what I want... the individualism that emerges in those countries that have seen disastrous responses to the epidemic.
’’Nowhere is that more clear than in the US. We can never have a situation where we can believe that we can be safe, or I can be safe, when you are not safe.
“This virus is about how it spreads from you to me or me to you, you are safe because I'm safe. I am safe because you are safe. That interdependence is fundamental to our approach.
“If we are divided and we are quibbling among ourselves we are weak, and this virus knows how to exploit weakness the moment we are weak. It uses that as an opportunity to spread,” he said.
Karim has dismissed claims that Covid-19 cases in SA are declining because fewer tests are being done.
“When we look at the number of cases, we don't look at it in isolation, we also have to look at the Test and the proportion of positive tests,” he said.
“If we look at those two, both of them are going in the same direction, they are going down.”
He said the number of tests in the past three weeks had been fairly constant and this could also be attributed to the number of admissions going down.
Wits University said on Wednesday it has resumed vaccinating in the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine trial also under way in the UK, Brazil and the US.
The trial was recently paused after a British participant fell ill with a suspected adverse reaction, but was expected to recover, Stat News reported.
Wits University said the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority and local ethics committees this week approved resuming vaccinations in SA.
IOL