Be Smart About South Africa

NICD Reports 687 New COVID-19 Cases In SA

The Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku with teams of field workers in Ekurhuleni District, Glen Marikana Informal settlement to form part of the screening and testing campaign aimed to combat the spread of COVID-19 on 17 April 2020. Pictures: Sethembiso Zulu/EWN

The NICD reports 687 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,929,862. This increase represents a 3.4% positivity rate. As per the National Department of Health, a further 2 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89,574to date.

19,113,226 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
Private	10,297,565	53.9%	11,659	57.5%
Public	8,815,661	46.1%	8,633	42.5%
Total	19,113,226	100.0%	20,292	100.0%

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (79%), followed by North West and KwaZulu-Natal each accounting for 5% respectively. Mpumalanga and Western Cape each accounted for 3% respectively; Northern Cape accounted for 2%; and Eastern Cape, Free State and Limpopo each accounted for 1% respectively of today’s new cases. The cumulative number of cases by province is shown in the table below:

Province	Total cases for 20 Nov 2021	Adjusted numbers after harmonisation	Updated total cases on 20 Nov 2021	New cases on 21 Nov 2021	Total cases for 21 Nov 2021	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	292,678	0	292,678	8	292,686	10,0
Free State	163,988	0	163,988	6	163,994	5,6
Gauteng	922,834	0	922,834	545	923,379	31,5
KwaZulu-Natal	516,439	0	516,439	31	516,470	17,6
Limpopo	122,443	0	122,443	7	122,450	4,2
Mpumalanga	152,377	0	152,377	18	152,395	5,2
North West	151,006	0	151,006	32	151,038	5,2
Northern Cape	92,980	0	92,980	17	92,997	3,2
*Western Cape	514,430	0	514,430	23	514,453	17,6
Total	2,929,175	0	292,9175	687	2,929,862	100,0

*There may be discrepancies in the numbers of cases and recoveries reported for the Western Cape, as the Western Cape reporting currently includes re-infections and additional cases identified by antigen tests, which are not incorporated into the national line list for reporting. As a result, the number of recoveries for the Western Cape has been kept static on the national reports. We are working with Western Cape health authorities to align the reporting and resolve these discrepancies.

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

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 3.4% which is higher than yesterday (2.8%). The 7-day average is 2.0% today, which is higher than yesterday (1.7%).

For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 13 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	258	200,677	37,332	1,200
Public	408	235,542	57,139	1,505
TOTAL	666	436,219	94,471	2,705