The Health Department has announced that the number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa has risen to 8,895
This is an increase of 663 from Thursday’s announcement.
The number of deaths has also increased by 17 bringing the total to 178
The Western Cape has the most infections with 4,497, followed by Gauteng at 1,851, KwaZulu-Natal 1,253, Free State 133, North West 42, Mpumalanga 60, Limpopo 43, Eastern Cape 989, Northern Cape 27 and unallocated infections 0.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted to date is 307,752 this is an increase of 15,559, which were done in the last 24 hours.
Mkhize says as of 7 May there were 435 patients in hospital of which 45 were in high care, 77 were in ICU and, of those, 40 were being ventilated.
He says the hospitalization rate remains at 5% of all COVID- 19 diagnosed patients.
“Regrettably, we report 17 more COVID-19 related deaths: 3 from Eastern Cape, 3 from Gauteng, 2 from KZN and 9 from Western Cape. This brings the total national deaths to 178. There has been a delay in reporting some of these deaths due to the stringent verification processes we had undertaken.”
Mkhize has expressed his condolences to the affected families and appreciation to the health workers who treated the patients.
The Health Minister says he will be embarking on oversight visits to the Eastern Cape and Western Cape this weekend which will be followed by Presidential visits to both provinces later next week.
“The provinces have recorded the two highest new cases in the past 24 hours with Western Cape accounting for 76% of new cases and the Eastern Cape accounting for 9% of new cases. In addition, the Western Cape has just over 50% of the COVID-19 burden in South Africa, recording the highest deaths as well.”
Mkhize also acknowledge the commitment and hard work of health professionals and frontline workers- both in public and private sectors.
Faizel Patel
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