Cape Town – A total of 5 244 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in South Africa on Friday, according to the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
“Today the institute reports 5 244 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 552 043,” the institute said.
More than 40 318 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, of which 5 244 indicated Covid-19 infection, representing a positivity rate of 13%.
Out of Friday’s total tests, 21 390 were conducted in the private sector and 18 928 in public health facilities.
The Western Cape contributed the majority of Friday’s new cases, an ongoing pattern for the past three days.
“Today the National Department of Health reports 128 deaths and, of these, 59 occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 93 117 to date,” the institute said.
An ongoing audit exercise across all of South Africa’s nine provinces has been implemented since January 6, resulting in a spike in Covid-19-reported deaths.
Some 274 more hospital admissions were recorded by the institute. However, South Africa’s hospital admissions per day have decreased over the entire week.
Current hospital admissions per day (private and public sectors):
- Monday: 8 783
- Tuesday: 8 535
- Wednesday: 8 513
- Thursday: 8 223
- Friday: 8 136
Breakdown of SA’s new cases per province:
- Western Cape: 1 389
- Gauteng: 1 061
- KwaZulu-Natal: 984
- Eastern Cape: 460
- Limpopo: 456
- Northern Cape: 247
- Mpumalanga: 227
- Free State: 218
- North West: 202
IOL