It’s just over a month since another wave of Covid-19 infections engulfed South Africa and already there is enough data to show this will overshadow the first. A breakdown of each province’s data shows what they’re now up against. The Western Cape reported 111,108 new Covid-19 infections between 9 December 2020 – when the nationwide second wave was declared – and 16 January 2021. This accounts for 43% of all cases ever reported by the province. In the Eastern Cape, 45,496 people tested positive for Covid-19 between 9 December and 16 January. The daily number of new cases had been decreasing over the past week from more than 1,000 new cases a day to just under 800. The current wave has reached a high of 2,187 new cases on 10 December – this is slightly lower than the first wave’s highest daily increase of 2,433 on 6 July. At the height of its first wave in July, Gauteng recorded between 5,000 and 6,000 new Covid-19 cases a day. For the past two weeks, new cases have ranged between 5,000 and 7,000 a day. In the second wave so far, 118,201 people have contracted Covid-19 and 1,818 died from it. In that time, 74,188 recovered from the virus. However, active cases rose by 42,195. That’s from 5,403 to 47,598 in just over a month.
SOURCE: DAILY MAVERICK