Covid-19 cases rise by another 15,939 with 413 deaths in SA

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported an additional 15,939 new Covid-19 cases in SA on Friday.

A further 413 Covid-19 related deaths were reported over the past 24-hour cycle, bringing the total fatalities to 66,385 to date.

“The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (38%), followed by Western Cape (19%). Limpopo accounted for 12%; Mpumalanga accounted for 9%; North West accounted for 8%; Eastern Cape accounted for 5%; KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 4%; Free State accounted for 3%; and the Northern Cape accounted for 2% of today’s new cases,” the NICD said in a statement.

Gauteng has shown a decline in Covid-19 cases and might be slowly getting over the peak of the third wave, Prof Salim Abdool Karim told TimesLIVE on Friday.

Abdool Karim, former chair of the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, said the third wave was more than twice the peak of the first and second waves in the country.

“Gauteng has really been through a rough patch, but now that they are on the decline, the number of cases will start rapidly going down,” he said.

The NICD said an additional 54,097 tests had been done since the last update on Thursday. The cumulative number of laboratory confirmed Covid-19 cases in SA is now 2,269,179.

“There has been an increase of 714 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours,” said the NICD. 

TimesLIVE