New Covid-19 cases climb by 1 378 as SA receives more J&J vaccines

Cape Town - The number of new Covid-19 cases reported rose by 1 378 on Saturday, according the the Department of Health.

This brings the total number of positive cases in South Africa to 1 536 801.

A further 47 new deaths were also reported, the department said, bringing the death toll from the virus to 52 082.

VACCINATIONS

Earlier in the day, government took delivery of another 70 000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This is expected to help boost the number of frontline workers to be inoculated within the first month of the vaccine rollout.

On Thursday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said 182 983 health workers had been vaccinated since the start of SA’s vaccine rollout last month.

HOSPITALISATIONS

Of the 4 162 patients currently hospitalised, 644 are in intensive care units, 330 are on ventilators and 1214 are being oxygenated, according to data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

At 1 432, Gauteng currently has the highest number of Covid-19 hospitalisations while Limpopo has the lowest number at 95.

The Western Cape currently has 925 Covid-19 patients in the province’s public and private hospitals, while KwaZulu-Natal has 668.

To date, 247 804 patients have been admitted to hospitals. Of these 183 904 have been discharged after recovering from Covid-19, while 50 995 have died.

ACTIVE CASES

The province with the highest number of active cases is KZN with 6 352 cases. The Eastern Cape has the lowest number of active cases at 392.

TESTING

Over the past 24 hours, 26 339 tests were conducted. The number of tests conducted since the pandemic hit SA now stands at 9 611 262.

DEATHS AND RECOVERIES

To date 1 462 110 people have recovered from the virus, putting the country’s recovery rate at a stable 95 percent.

Here is a breakdown of the latest deaths by province:

Eastern Cape: 2

Free State: 3

Gauteng: 9

KwaZulu-Natal: 21

Limpopo: 0

Mpumalanga: 9

Northern Cape: 0

North West: 0

Western Cape: 3

* The NICD data is compiled from 642 state and private hospitals.

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