Be Smart About South Africa

NICD Reports 789 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 789 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,928,288. This increase represents a 2.8% positivity rate. As per the National Department of Health, a further 7 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89,562to date.

19,061,166 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
Private	10,270,978	53.9%	14,703	51.6%
Public	8,790,188	46.1%	13,801	48.4%
Total	19,061,166	100.0%	28,504	100.0%

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (65%), followed by Northern Cape (7%). North West and Western Cape each accounted for 6% respectively; KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 5%; Mpumalanga accounted for 4%; Free State accounted for 3%; Eastern Cape and Limpopo each accounted for 2% respectively of today’s new cases. The cumulative number of cases by province is shown in the table below:

Province	Total cases for 18 Nov 2021	Adjusted numbers after harmonisation	Updated total cases on 18 Nov 2021	New cases on 19 Nov 2021	Total cases for 19 Nov 2021	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	292,644	0	292,644	19	292,663	10,0
Free State	163,957	0	163,957	22	163,979	5,6
Gauteng	921,740	0	921,740	509	922,249	31,5
KwaZulu-Natal	516,354	0	516,354	43	516,397	17,6
Limpopo	122,405	0	122,405	17	122,422	4,2
Mpumalanga	152,315	0	152,315	28	152,343	5,2
North West	150,934	0	150,934	46	150,980	5,2
Northern Cape	92,816	0	92,816	59	92,875	3,2
*Western Cape	514,334	0	514,334	46	514,380	17,6
Total	2,927,499	0	2,927,499	789	2,928,288	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 2.8% which is higher than yesterday (1.7%).The 7-day average is 1.4% today, which is higher than yesterday (1.2%).

For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 38 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	200,817	37,326	1,415
Public	408	235,501	57,136	1,480
TOTAL	666	436,318	94,462	2,895