Be Smart About South Africa

NICD Reports 1 287 New COVID-19 Cases In SA

The NICD reports 1,287 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,703,329. This increase represents a 5.0% positivity rate.

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 11 deaths and of these, 3 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,879 to date.

23,569,125 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
Private	12,808,887	54.3%	15,461	60.5%
Public	10,760,238	45.7%	10,100	39.5%
Total	23,569,125	100.0%	25,561	100.0%

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (37%), followed by Western Cape (25%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 21% and North West accounted for 5%. Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo & Mpumalanga each accounted for 3% respectively; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.

The cumulative number of cases by province are shown in the table below:

Province	Total cases for 18 March 2022	Adjusted numbers after harmonisation	Updated total cases on 18 March 2022	Incident infections for 19 March 2022	Possible reinfections for 19 March 2022	New cases on 19 March 2022	Total cases for 19 March 2022	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	344,445	0	344,445	30	4	34	344,479	9.3
Free State	201,879	0	201,879	37	8	45	201,924	5.5
Gauteng	1,202,924	-6	1,202,918	403	67	470	1,203,388	32.5
KwaZulu-Natal	657,004	1	657,005	247	23	270	657,275	17.7
Limpopo	155,466	2	155,468	28	5	33	155,501	4.2
Mpumalanga	192,702	1	192,703	37	2	39	192,742	5.2
North West	192,329	1	192,330	57	5	62	192,392	5.2
Northern Cape	108,734	0	108,734	14	1	15	108,749	2.9
Western Cape	646,559	1	646,560	286	33	319	646,879	17.5
Total	3,702,042	0	3,702,042	1,139	148	1,287	3,703,329	100.0

THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 5.0%, which is lower than yesterday (5.3%). The 7-day average is 5.5% today, which is the lower than yesterday (5.6%)

For detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 14 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. The following table is a summary of reported COVID-19 admissions by sector.

Sector	Facilities Reporting	Admissions to Date	Died to Date	Currently Admitted
Private	259	231,659	39,347	807
Public	407	278,423	62,119	1210
TOTAL	666	510,082	101,466	2,017