A medical worker takes a sample for COVID-19 during a community testing.
Health Minister, Joe Phaahla says South Africa is in the fourth wave of the coronavirus with all provinces recording infections.
Briefing the media on Friday morning, Phaahla says the recovery rate from the variant is still high.
“The positivity rate has also risen steeply across the country and with yesterday’s (Thursday) average positivity rate of 31%. Eight provinces recorded a positivity rate of 30% or above. With only Gauteng only province which was below 30% of positivity at 25%. In this wave the average number of daily cases is upwards of 20 000 but hospital admissions are below 400.”
Phaahla says the Omicron variant has been reported in 70 countries.
South Africa has recorded 24 785 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, which brings the total number of cases to 3 255 816. This increase represents a 30.9% positivity rate.
A further 36 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90 262 to date.
According to the NICD, the breakdown of provincial cases shows KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape quickly catching up to Gauteng with positive infections.
“The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (27%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (23%). Western Cape accounted for 19%; Eastern Cape accounted for 9%; Free State accounted for 6%; Mpumalanga accounted for 5%; Limpopo and North West each accounted for 4%; and Northern Cape accounted for 3%.”
SABC News