Three more Covid-19 patients die as Western Cape numbers rise 8.8%

Three more elderly people have died from Covid-19 in the Western Cape, bringing the provincial total to 38, premier Alan Winde said on Wednesday.

They were men aged 78 and 67 and a woman of 79, all of whom had underlying illnesses.

At 5pm on Tuesday, the province had 1,935 confirmed Covid-19 cases, up 8.8% on the previous day. Almost 1,300 cases were still active, and 84 people were in hospital.

Case numbers in the southern suburbs rose by just three (1.4%) to 212, but in the Tygerberg district they leapt by 37 (19.8%), to 224.

Khayelitsha, with 232 patients (up 27, or 13.2%), is now the Cape Town health district with the second highest number of cases, after the western district with 408 (up 19, or 4.9%).

In Witzenberg, the municipality surrounding Ceres, two hours north of Cape Town, Winde said cases had risen from 100 on Monday to 103 on Tuesday.

Ceres is at the centre of a rural Covid-19 hotspot, with at least 24 patients linked to officials at Warmbokkeveld prison just outside the town.