Be Smart About South Africa

NICD Reports 2 267 New COVID-19 Cases In SA

Gauteng healthcare workers screening Alexandra residents for coronavirus (COVID-19) on 31 March 2020 following the roll out of massive community screenings and testing programmes by the provincial executive council. Picture: Ahmed Kajee/EWN.

The NICD reports 2,267 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,657,091. This increase represents a 7.5% 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 319 deaths and of these, 9 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 98,617 to date.

22,860,591 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
Private	12,397,760	54.2%	16,655	54.8%
Public	10,462,831	45.8%	13,764	45.2%
Total	22,860,591	100.0%	30,419	100.0%

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (37%), followed by Western Cape (20%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 12%; Mpumalanga accounted for 10%; North West and Free State each accounted for 6% respectively; Eastern Cape and Limpopo each accounted for 4% respectively; and Northern Cape accounted for 2% of today’s new cases. The cumulative number of cases by province are shown in the table below:

Province	Total cases for 18 Feb 2022	Adjusted numbers after harmonisation	Updated total cases on 18 Feb 2022	New cases on 19 Feb 2022	Total cases for 19 Feb 2022	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	342,739	0	342,739	85	342,824	9.4
Free State	199,670	0	199,670	130	199,800	5.5
Gauteng	1,185,670	0	1,185,670	847	1,186,517	32.4
KwaZulu-Natal	649,208	0	649,208	271	649,479	17.8
Limpopo	154,033	0	154,033	85	154,118	4.2
Mpumalanga	189,784	0	189,784	230	190,014	5.2
North West	189,572	0	189,572	140	189,712	5.2
Northern Cape	107,992	0	107,992	36	108,028	3.0
Western Cape	636,156	0	636,156	443	636,599	17.4
Total	3,654,824	0	3,654,824	2,267	3,657,091	100.0

THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 7.5%, which is lower than yesterday (8.4%). The 7-day average is 8.1% today, which is lower than yesterday (8.2%).

For detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 36hospital 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	228,688	39,073	1,563
Public	407	275,628	61,908	1,760
TOTAL	666	504,316	100,981	3,323