The UN health agency chief pointed out that since Omicron was first spotted in southern Africa 10 weeks ago, nearly 90 million Covid cases have been reported to the WHO – more than in all of 2020. Photo: Stock/Canva
COVID-19 latest: SA reports 9 818 new confirmed cases, 53 more deaths
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said that on Saturday, 53 more deaths were recorded, bringing the fatalities to 91 061.
The UN health agency chief pointed out that since Omicron was first spotted in southern Africa 10 weeks ago, nearly 90 million Covid cases have been reported to the WHO – more than in all of 2020. Photo: Stock/Canva
South Africa recorded 9 818 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has said Saturday.
WHAT IS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF CONFIRMED CASES TO DATE?
This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 468 079.
The increase of 9 818 new COVID-19 cases represents a 28.1% positivity rate.
A FURTHER 53 COVID-19 RELATED DEATHS
A further 53 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 91 198 to date.
“The cumulative number of recoveries is 3 182 969.”
THE TOTAL NUMBER OF RECOVERIES TO DATE?
The majority of new cases are in KwaZulu-Natal with 2 573 new cases, the Western Cape with 2 522 new cases, and Gauteng with 1 673, and the Eastern Cape with 1 170 new cases in the provinces.
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21 267 879 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.
There has been an increase of 62 hospital admissions in the past 24hours.
WHAT IS THE OMICRON VARIANT?
By the end of that meeting, the WHO had named the variant the omicron variant. This follows the Delta and Beta variants that were also given Greek names.
The first case of the Omicron variant was from a COVID test that was collected on the 9th of November. South African scientists identified the new variant and first reported the matter to the WHO on the 24th of November.
But what makes Omicron different from other variants? Well, it has a large number of mutations. In fact, a lot more than any of the previous variants seen before.
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