Covid-19 update: 1,649 new cases and 18 deaths reported

NATIONAL NEWS - South African has recorded a total of 3.675,691 positive cases of Covid-19, with 1,649 new cases identified in the past 24 hours.

This increase represents a 6.3% positivity rate, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has announced.

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (37%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape, each accounting for 20% and 19%, respectively. Mpumalanga accounted for 7%; Free State, Eastern Cape and North West each accounted for 4%; Limpopo accounted for 3% and Northern Cape for 2% of today’s new cases, said the NICD.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 18 deaths, and of these, 6 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,430 to date,” IT SAID.

23.111,817 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

There has been an increase of 49 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.