DURBAN - SOUTH AFRICA recorded a total of 61 380 new Covid-19 infections this week.
Daily figures released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) showed that SA’s number of new infections have been averaging between 8 000 and 14 000, with the highest number recorded on Wednesday.
As per the NICD’s latest report, on Friday SA recorded 14 312 new cases with 289 new deaths.
SA has 168 993 active cases, with total Covid-19 case count of 2 666 964.
This increase represents a 21.6% positivity rate. Meanwhile, 78 983 people have succumbed to the pandemic.
The NICD said the majority of Friday's new cases are from:
KwaZulu-Natal - 29%
Western Cape - 27%
Eastern Cape - 12%
Gauteng - 10%
Free State - 6%
Mpumalanga - 6%
Northern Cape - 4%
North West - 3%
Limpopo - 2%
There has also been an increase of 605 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
The NICD said the weekly hospital surveillance report for week 32 reveals that since week 27, decreases in admissions have been observed across all provinces except WC and KZN.
“The number of deaths increased in both sectors since week 15 until the peak in week 28. Decreases in deaths in both sectors (public and private) have been observed in the past four weeks.
“There was a decrease in the average daily Covid-19 admissions and deaths comparing the previous 14 days and the current 14 days in all provinces,” the NICD said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of “ama2000” rolled up their sleeves and got vaccinated after Cabinet announced that the vaccine roll-out programme had been opened to the 18 - 35 cohort.
Communities are urged to get vaccinated.
IOL