COVID-19: New cases rise by 1 654 after 63 648 vaccines administered

The latest COVID-19 figures have been released. According to the Health Ministry, 1 862 new cases were identified in South Africa. As of today, the death toll stands at 49 784 with recoveries at 1 426 417.

The total number of vaccines administered is 63 648.

COVID-19 update: 26 February 2021

Breakdown of new confirmed COVID-19 cases

As per Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s report, 1 676 confirmed cases were identified during the past 24 hours (1 676 on 25 February 2020). Unfortunately, we also lost 117 patients to COVID-19-related illnesses.

As per the report: 4 patients from the Eastern Cape passed away, 59 from Gauteng, 13 from KwaZulu-Natal, 4 from Limpopo, 8 from Mpumalanga, 12 from Northern Cape, and 17 from Western Cape.

At the time of publishing, the Health Ministry recorded 9 028 074 cumulative COVID-19 tests, of which 28 752 were done during the past 24 hours: 13 832 at public facilities and 14 920 at private facilities.

New cases, deaths and recoveries by province

The confirmed COVID-19 cases per province is as follows:

Province	Total Cases in South Africa	Total Deaths	Total Recoveries	Active Cases currently
Eastern Cape	193 843	11 280	182 166	397
Free State	79 906	3 220	70 117	6 569
Gauteng	403 985	9 620	390 428	3 937
KwaZulu-Natal	328 496	9 562	309 192	9 742
Limpopo	61 842	1 866	58 857	1 119
Mpumalanga	70 823	1 259	68 280	1 284
North West	60 752	1 167	56 713	2 872
Northern Cape	33 892	678	30 841	2 373
Western Cape	277 239	11 132	259 823	6 284
Unallocated	0

COVID-19 updates from around the world

AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine update

Estonia: The spread of Covid in Estonia is reaching critical proportions, a top health official warned on Friday, as the government tightened restrictions to fight one of Europe’s highest per capita contagion rates.

Russia: President Vladimir Putin and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz agree to talks over the delivery and joint production of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the Kremlin says.

Canada: Authorities approve a third COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca, which joins the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna jabs. Ottawa has ordered 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and two million shots of the same formula made by the Serum Institute of India.

Greece extends a lockdown in the capital Athens and other areas until March 8 as the infection rate remains high.

Japan: Tokyo is ending a state of emergency early in some regions as infections slow, with less than five months to go before the pandemic-postponed Olympics are due to open there.

United States: A panel of independent experts met Friday to discuss whether to grant Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 shot emergency approval, likely paving the way for a third vaccine to start shipping in the world’s hardest-hit country.

Global statistics

At the time of publishing, COVID-19 is affecting 219 countries and territories. The global caseload stands at 113,824,567, with the death toll at 2,524,780 and recoveries at 89,430,829.

The US is the worst-affected with 522,105 deaths from 29,105,144 cases. After the US, the hardest-hit countries are India with 156,970 deaths from 11,079,094 cases, and Brazil with 251,661 deaths from 10,393,886.

Russia has 85,304 deaths from 4,223,186 cases while the UK recorded 122,415 deaths from 4,163,085 cases. South Africa is currently 16th on the list, preceded by Iran, Poland, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Spain, and France.