Today the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports 1,151 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 659 698. This increase represents a 7.4% positivity rate.
Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 137 deaths and of these, 7 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 98,804 to date.
22,896,483 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.
| Sector | Total tested | New tested | ||
| Private | 12,421,513 | 54.3% | 10,499 | 67.3% |
| Public | 10,474,970 | 45.7% | 5,105 | 32.7% |
| Total | 22,896,483 | 100.0% | 15,604 | 100.0% |
PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (40%), followed by North West and Western Cape, each accounting for 17%. Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 9%; Mpumalanga accounted for 7%; Free State accounted for 4%. Eastern Cape and Limpopo each accounted for 2% respectively; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.
The cumulative number of cases by province are shown in the table below:
| Province | Total cases for 20 February 2022 | Adjusted numbers after harmonisation | Updated total cases on 20 February 2022 | New cases on 21 February 2022 | Total cases for 21 February 2022 | Percentage total |
| Eastern Cape | 342,873 | 0 | 342,873 | 26 | 342,899 | 9.4 |
| Free State | 199,878 | 0 | 199,878 | 49 | 199,927 | 5.5 |
| Gauteng | 1,187,079 | 0 | 1,187,079 | 459 | 1,187,538 | 32.4 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 649,649 | 0 | 649,649 | 107 | 649,756 | 17.8 |
| Limpopo | 154,156 | 0 | 154,156 | 25 | 154,181 | 4.2 |
| Mpumalanga | 190,116 | 0 | 190,116 | 82 | 190,198 | 5.2 |
| North West | 189,849 | 0 | 189,849 | 198 | 190,047 | 5.2 |
| Northern Cape | 108,063 | -1 | 108,062 | 14 | 108,076 | 3.0 |
| Western Cape | 636,884 | 1 | 636,885 | 191 | 637,076 | 17.4 |
| Total | 3,658,547 | 0 | 3,658,547 | 1,151 | 3,659,698 | 100.0 |
THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 7.4%, which is higher than yesterday (7.2%). The 7-day average is 8.1% today, which is higher than yesterday (8.0%).
For detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 42 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. The following table is a summary of reported COVID-19 admissions by sector.
| Sector | Facilities Reporting | Admissions to Date | Died to Date | Currently Admitted |
| Private | 259 | 228,800 | 39,084 | 1,464 |
| Public | 407 | 275,872 | 61,938 | 1,711 |
| TOTAL | 666 | 504,672 | 101,022 | 3,175 |
VACCINE UPDATE
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.
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