Be Smart About South Africa

NICD Reports 15 424 New COVID-19 Cases In SA

Coronavirus patients receive oxygen in the Intensive Care Unit of a Hospital in Machakos, Kenya, August 20, 2021.

The NICD reports 15,424 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,332,008. This increase represents a 27.6% positivity rate.

As per the National Department of Health, a further 35COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90,488 to date.

20,775,208 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
Private	11,198,127	53.9%	27,868	49.9%
Public	9,577,081	46.1%	28,009	50.1%
Total	20,775,208	100.0%	55,877	100.0%

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN

The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (26%), followed by Western Cape (22%). Gauteng accounted for 21%; Eastern Cape 9% and Free State 6%. North West accounted for 5%; Limpopo and Mpumalanga each accounted for 4%. Northern Cape accounted for 3% of today’s new cases. The cumulative number of cases by province are shown in the table below:

Province	Total cases for 20 December 2021	Adjusted numbers after harmonisation	Updated total cases on 20 December 2021	New cases on 21 December 2021	Total cases for 21 December 2021	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	312,070	0	312,070	1,442	313,512	9,4
Free State	181,618	2	181,620	928	182,548	5,5
Gauteng	1,107,343	17	1,107,360	3,316	1,110,676	33,3
KwaZulu-Natal	575,932	0	575,932	4,009	579,941	17,4
Limpopo	136,526	35	136,561	619	137,180	4,1
Mpumalanga	171,001	5	171,006	555	171,561	5,1
North West	172,826	-52	172,774	831	173,605	5,2
Northern Cape	984,26	-13	98,413	400	98,813	3,0
Western Cape	560,843	5	560,848	3,324	564,172	16,9
Total	3,316,585	-1	3,316,584	15,424	3,332,008	100,0

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

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 27,6% which is lower than yesterday (29,9%). The 7-day average is 30,1% today, which is lower than yesterday (31,1%).

For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 633 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	211,300	37,682	3,654
Public	407	248,544	57,939	5,369
TOTAL	666	459,844	95,621	9,023