Stay Smart About South Africa

SA Reports 17 493 New COVID-19 Cases

Health officials are hard at work here at the Stjwetla informal settlement in Alexandra testing neighbours of the man who tested positive for COVID-19 on 31 March 2020. Picture: Ahmed Kajee/EWN

17,493 new COVID-19 cases have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 1,861,065. This increase represents a 24.9% positivity rate.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, continues to monitor the COVID-19 outbreak in order to inform the public health response. Dr Michelle Groome, Head of the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response, warns that “the sharp rise in the reported daily COVID-19 cases is cause for concern, especially in the Gauteng Province where daily case numbers are exceeding those seen during the previous two waves.” She adds, “Ultimately, it is up to each one of us to play our role to reduce the spread of the virus by limiting our interaction with others, as much as possible, during this time”.

A further 166 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 59 258 to date. Prof Adrian Puren, Acting Executive Director of the NICD stresses that, the anecdotes from family and friends are real, “It is critical to manage our risks and the risk to others, especially the elderly by limiting contact with others and avoiding gatherings with those who are not part of our safe bubble”.

For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

12 703 421 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.

Sector	Total tested	New tested
PRIVATE	7,176,061	56%	45,963	65%
PUBLIC	5,527,360	44%	24,223	35%
Total	12,703,421		70,186

PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN

The majority of new cases today are from the Gauteng province (62%), followed by the Western Cape (10%). The cumulative number of cases by province is shown below:

Province	New cases on 23 June 2021	Total cases for 23 June 2021	Percentage total
Eastern Cape	637	203,709	10.9
Free State	491	111,401	6.0
Gauteng	10,806	578,488	31.1
KwaZulu-Natal	917	348,604	18.7
Limpopo	724	70,821	3.8
Mpumalanga	825	90,094	4.8
North West	1,018	88,833	4.8
Northern Cape	297	57,467	3.1
Western Cape	1,778	311 648	16.7
Unknown	0	0	0.0
Total	17,493	1,861,065	100.0

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS

An increase of 622 hospital admissions have been reported in the past 24 hours.

A summary of reported COVID-19 hospital admissions is shown below:

Sector	Facilities Reporting	Admissions to Date	Died to Date	Currently Admitted
Private	257	139,641	23,279	6879
Public	399	155,906	37,039	3618
TOTAL	656	295,547	60,318	10,497

VACCINE UPDATE

For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.

Thank you for your interest and remember that adhering to preventative measures limits your risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19. For more information on COVID-19, click here.