Covid-19 in SA: 9 860 new infections, 45 deaths recorded on Thursday

CAPE TOWN - South Africa registered more than 9 800 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, with 45 related deaths occurring in the past 48 hours.

“Today the institute reports 9 860 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 504 554,” the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported on Thursday.

It said 46 948 tests were conducted on Thursday, and taking into account the number of new cases, represent a positivity rate of 21%.

However, NICD ‘s Covid-19 report for Thursday does not include the number of deaths that occurred.

There has been an ongoing audit exercise conducted across all of South Africa’s nine provinces to address a black log of cases and deaths, the Department of Health says in a statement on Thursday.

As a result of this audit, “out of 551 deaths recorded today, only 45 have occurred in the past 48 hours,” the health department said.

“The provincial Covid-19 dashboards reflect Covid-19 deaths by date of death rather than by date reported, and provides the most accurate trends in deaths in patients with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the department said.

Meanwhile, the Western Cape has recorded the majority of South Africa’s new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, followed by Gauteng, with Limpopo contributing the least amount of new cases.

Hospital admissions have increased in the last 24 hours by 419, bringing the total number of admitted patients to 9 603 across both the public and private sectors.

The health department also said 65 204 vaccinations were administered across South Africa, with Gauteng continuing to lead the country in this regard as 19 466 vaccines were administered in the province in the last 24 hours.