The institute reports 5,096 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 899 841. This increase represents a 20.9% 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 41 deaths, and of these, 12 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,812 to date.
24,927,476 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.
| Sector | Total tested | New tested | ||
| Private | 13,600,730 | 54.6% | 18,238 | 74.7% |
| Public | 11,326,746 | 45.4% | 6,187 | 25.3% |
| Total | 24,927,476 | 100.0% | 24,425 | 100.0% |
PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (36%) followed by KwaZulu-Natal (19%) . Western Cape accounted for 18%; Eastern Cape accounted for 11% and Free State accounted for 7%;. Mpumalanga, North West & Northern Cape each accounted for 3% respectively, and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s cases.
The cumulative number of cases by province are shown in the table below:
| Province | Total cases for 16 May 2022 | Adjusted numbers after harmonisation | Updated total cases on 16 May 2022 | Incident infections for 17 May 2022 | Possible reinfections for 17 May 2022 | New cases on 17 May 2022 | Total cases for 17 May 2022 | Percentage total |
| Eastern Cape | 354,630 | 0 | 354,630 | 464 | 97 | 561 | 355,191 | 9,1 |
| Free State | 209,939 | 0 | 209,939 | 275 | 58 | 333 | 210,272 | 5,4 |
| Gauteng | 1,286,467 | 0 | 1,286,467 | 1,500 | 316 | 1,816 | 1,288,283 | 33,0 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 701,257 | 0 | 701,257 | 819 | 162 | 981 | 702,238 | 18,0 |
| Limpopo | 157,580 | 0 | 157,580 | 47 | 12 | 59 | 157,639 | 4,0 |
| Mpumalanga | 197,689 | 2 | 197,691 | 110 | 29 | 139 | 197,830 | 5,1 |
| North West | 197,500 | -2 | 197,498 | 127 | 27 | 154 | 197,652 | 5,1 |
| Northern Cape | 111,590 | 0 | 111,590 | 125 | 23 | 148 | 111,738 | 2,9 |
| Western Cape | 678,093 | 0 | 678,093 | 756 | 149 | 905 | 678,998 | 17,4 |
| Total | 3,894,745 | 0 | 3,894,745 | 4,223 | 873 | 5,096 | 3,899,841 | 100,0 |
THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (20.9%), and is higher than yesterday (16.8%). The 7-day average is (23.4%) today, and is lower than yesterday (23.7%).
For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 195 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 | 262 | 243,166 | 40,078 | 1,641 |
| Public | 407 | 284,042 | 62,616 | 1,554 |
| TOTAL | 666 | 527,208 | 102,694 | 3,195 |
VACCINE UPDATE
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.