South Africa’s COVID-19 caseload tops 2.9 million mark

By Jerry Omondi

Residents in an observation area following their COVID-19 vaccine, outside a pop-up vaccination bus in Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. (Photo by Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa surpassed the 2.9 million mark on Wednesday as efforts to contain further spread of the virus continue.

The country’s health ministry reported 2,106 new infections from tests conducted in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,900,994.

In the same period, 108 new fatalities were recorded, bringing the country’s total number of virus-related deaths to 87,525.

South Africa is the hardest-hit country by the pandemic in Africa, with its infections accounting for 34.97 percent of the continent’s caseload while its deaths account for 41.55 percent of Africa’s fatalities.

Gauteng province has been affected most, having registered 916,136 infections with 19,380 deaths. The province’s caseload is more than the tallies reported by every other African country other than Morocco, while its death toll is more than those reported by all countries on the continent apart from Tunisia.

Two other provinces have registered more than 500,000 COVID-19 infections; KwaZulu Natal (511,461) and Western Cape (509,438).

The country has rolled out a nationwide vaccination drive in efforts to contain further spread of the virus.

So far, 17,349,100 doses have been administered.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *