The institute reports 6,375 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 921 633. This increase represents a 19.5% 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 18 deaths, and of these, 6occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,916 to date.
25 025 578 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.
Sector | Total tested | New tested | ||
Private | 13,651,384 | 5456% | 15,840 | 48.4% |
Public | 11,374,194 | 45.5% | 16,911 | 51.6% |
Total | 25,025,578 | 100.0% | 32,751 | 100.0% |
PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (34%) followed by Western Cape (23%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 14%; Eastern Cape accounted for 10% and Free State accounted for 7%. Northern Cape and North West each accounted for 4%; Mpumalanga accounted for 3% 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 19 May 2022 | Adjusted numbers after harmonisation | Updated total cases on 19 May 2022 | Incident infections for 20 May 2022 | Possible reinfections for 20 May 2022 | New cases on 20 May 2022 | Total cases for 20 May 2022 | Percentage total |
Eastern Cape | 356,577 | 1 | 356,578 | 556 | 96 | 652 | 357,230 | 9.1 |
Free State | 211,256 | 2 | 211,258 | 363 | 67 | 430 | 211,688 | 5.4 |
Gauteng | 1,293,830 | 2 | 1,293,832 | 1,864 | 326 | 2,190 | 1,296,022 | 33.0 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 704,547 | -7 | 704,540 | 764 | 116 | 880 | 705,420 | 18.0 |
Limpopo | 157,769 | 0 | 157,769 | 47 | 8 | 55 | 157,824 | 4.0 |
Mpumalanga | 198,334 | 2 | 198,336 | 179 | 40 | 219 | 198,555 | 5.1 |
North West | 198,177 | 0 | 198,177 | 195 | 32 | 227 | 198,404 | 5.1 |
Northern Cape | 112,366 | 0 | 112,366 | 218 | 34 | 252 | 112,618 | 2.9 |
Western Cape | 682,402 | 0 | 682,402 | 1,213 | 257 | 1470 | 683,872 | 17.4 |
Total | 3,915,258 | 0 | 3,915,258 | 5,399 | 976 | 6,375 | 3,921,633 | 100.0 |
THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (19.5%), and is lower than yesterday (24.8%). The 7-day average is (22.9%) today, and is lower than yesterday (23.3%).

For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 134 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 | 244,140 | 40,110 | 1,660 |
Public | 407 | 284,874 | 62,662 | 1,659 |
TOTAL | 669 | 529,014 | 102,772 | 3,319 |
VACCINE UPDATE
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.
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