President Cyril Ramaphosa are urging all citizens to get vaccinated. File picture
THE National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported a total of 2 273 new cases and 25 Covid-19 related deaths yesterday (Monday).
This comes a week after South African scientists discovered a new Covid variant known as Omicron.
“Today the institute reports 2 273 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 963 679.
“This increase represents a 10.7% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 25 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 822 to date.
“A total of 19 434 381 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors,” the NICD said.
The organisation has for the past week recorded the majority of new cases emanating from the Gauteng province and yesterday (Monday) this continued to be the case.
The NICD said 84% of the cases accounted for yesterday (Monday) came from the Gauteng province, followed by the Western Cape which accounted for 5% of cases.
KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 3% of cases while Mpumalanga and the North West each accounted for 2% of cases respectively.
The Free State and Limpopo each accounted for 1% of the cases while the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape provinces accounted for less than 1% of the new cases reported yesterday (Monday).
The NICD said the proportion of positive cases for yesterday (Monday) was 10.7%, which is higher than that which was recorded on Sunday (9.8%).
In the past 24 hours, there has been an increase of 79 new hospital admissions across the country.
On Sunday, while addressing the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged citizens to get vaccinated and protect themselves from the Omicron variant.
He also announced the country will remain on Alert Level 1, however, this will be closely monitored.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL