By Kaya 959 News
For the first time in months, South Africa’s Covid cases climbed by more than 8000 in a single day.
Yesterday the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported that 8 881 new Covid-19 infections were recorded, taking the country’s cumulative number of confirmed cases to 1 712 939.
The NICD said the country had a total of 66 128 active cases. The number of deaths has also increased to 57 310, with 127 new deaths recorded in parts of the country overnight.
To date, 11 985 750 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
“The increased number of tests and cases, and increased positivity are all evidence of the predicted third surge in COVID-19 cases, and not artifacts of data loading or increased laboratory turn-around times,” the NICD explained.
Read: SA records 5000+ COVID-19 cases for a second day
It said the majority of new cases were recorded in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
“There was an increase of 1,150 admissions in the past 24 hours, the largest increase being in Gauteng province with 587 new admissions. There were 135 additional in-hospital deaths reported in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said.
Meanwhile, Gauteng hospitals have sounded the alarm, stating they were under pressure as the number of infections continued to increase.
In an interview with eNCA, Netcare CEO Richard Friedland, said their hospitals were under pressure. He said in terms of active cases, they were now at around 50% of where they were in the second wave.
“We are seeing a significant rise in hospital admissions across all private and public facilities in the province. Fortunately, I think we have a very good oxygen supply and 80% of health-care workers have been vaccinated,” he said.
This week, the Gauteng Health Department announced it will be launching more vaccination sites.
It said this will enable the government to vaccinate more people aged 60 and over as well as healthcare workers as part of Phase 1b and Phase 2.
“A total of 25 new sites have been added and are spread across the province in Joburg (10), Tshwane (5), Ekurhuleni (4), West Rand (3) and Sedibeng (3),” the department said.
It said further steps have been taken to ensure that all vaccination sites make adequate plans for walk-ins, adding that no person will be turned away.
Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, said since the launch of the phases, they have vaccinated 246 791 people.
“Of these, 184 191 are people aged 60 and above and 62 600 are healthcare workers. To date, a total of 499 533 people are registered on the Electronic Vaccine Data System,” she said.
She said they have seen a steady increase in the uptake of the vaccine.
“More and more vaccination sites are now live, meaning that more people can get vaccinated closer to where they live or work,” Mokgethi said.
