Be Smart About South Africa

NICD Reports 889 New COVID-19 Cases In SA

Photo Credit: AP via VOA

The NICD reports 889 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,704,218. This increase represents a 5.4% 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 2 deaths and of these, 2 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,881 to date.

23,585,561 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
Private	12,819,649	54.4%	10,762	65.5%
Public	10,765,912	45.6%	5,674	34.5%
Total	23,585,561	100.0%	16,436	100.0%

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (39%), followed by Western Cape (28%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 18%; Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 4% respectively. Eastern Cape and Free State each accounted for 2% respectively; and Limpopo & Northern Cape each accounted for 1% respectively of today’s new cases

The cumulative number of cases by province are shown in the table below:

Province	Total cases for 19 March 2022	Adjusted numbers after harmonisation	Updated total cases on 19 March 2022	Incident infections for 20 March 2022	Possible reinfections for 20 March 2022	New cases on 20 March 2022	Total cases for 20 March 2022	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	344,479	0	344,479	16	1	17	344,496	9.3
Free State	201,924	0	201,924	17	1	18	201,942	5.5
Gauteng	1,203,388	0	1,203,388	301	48	349	1,203,737	32.5
KwaZulu-Natal	657,275	0	657,275	140	22	162	657,437	17.7
Limpopo	155,501	0	155,501	4	1	5	155,506	4.2
Mpumalanga	192,742	0	192,742	34	5	39	192,781	5.2
North West	192,392	0	192,392	36	3	39	192,431	5.2
Northern Cape	108,749	0	108,749	7	1	8	108,757	2.9
Western Cape	646,879	0	646,879	227	25	252	647,131	17.5
Total	3,703,329	0	3,703,329	782	107	889	3,704,218	100.0

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

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 5.4%, which is higher than yesterday (5.0%). The 7-day average is 5.5% today, which is the same as yesterday (5.5%).

For detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 12 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	231,667	39,349	806
Public	407	278,490	62,124	1222
TOTAL	666	510,157	101,473	2,028