Be Smart About South Africa

NICD Reports 2 800 New COVID-19 Cases In SA

The NICD reports 2,800 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,654,824. This increase represents an 8.4% 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 343 deaths and of these, 4 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 98,298 to date.

22,830,172 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
Private	12,381,105	54.2%	18,757	56.0%
Public	10,449,067	45.8%	14,762	44.0%
Total	22,830,172	100.0%	33,519	100.0%

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (40%), followed by Western Cape (19%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 13%; Mpumalanga accounted for 7%; North West accounted for 6%; Free State and Limpopo each accounted for 5% respectively; Eastern Cape accounted for 4%; 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 17 Feb 2022	Adjusted numbers after harmonisation	Updated total cases on 17 Feb 2022	New cases on 18 Feb 2022	Total cases for 18 Feb 2022	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	342,627	0	342,627	112	342,739	9.4
Free State	199,522	0	199,522	148	199,670	5.5
Gauteng	1,184,559	0	1,184,559	1,111	1,185,670	32.4
KwaZulu-Natal	648,854	0	648,854	354	649,208	17.8
Limpopo	153,900	0	153,900	133	154,033	4.2
Mpumalanga	189,589	0	189,589	195	189,784	5.2
North West	189,398	0	189,398	174	189,572	5.2
Northern Cape	107,942	-5	107,937	55	107,992	3.0
Western Cape	635,633	5	635,638	518	636,156	17.4
Total	3,652,024	0	3,652,024	2,800	3,654,824	100.0

THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 8.4%, which is lower than yesterday (8.8%). The 7-day average is 8.2% today, and is the same as yesterday (8.2%).

For detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 104 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	228,697	39,067	1,687
Public	407	275,574	61,912	1,763
TOTAL	666	504,271	100,979	3,450