President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to address South Africa at 8pm today on developments in the Covid-19 pandemic.
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa will address South Africa at 8pm on Sunday on developments in the country’s response to Covid-19, the Presidency said.
“The president’s address will follow meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council, the President’s Co-ordinating Council and the Cabinet which are taking place during the course of the day,” his office said.
“As South Africa rolls out its Covid-19 vaccination programme, government and social partners are continuously monitoring infection, treatment and patient recovery rates as well as compliance with health regulations and other prevention measures.”
On Saturday, South Africa recorded 21,610 new Covid-19 cases and reported 265 deaths, the Health Department said.
The cumulative number of Covid-19 cases identified in South Africa stood at 2,179,297, it said.
“Today 265 deaths have been reported bringing the total to 64,138 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stands at 1,904,107, with a recovery rate of 87.4 percent.”
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, said on Saturday it would continue the monitoring and surveillance of the pandemic to inform the public health response.
The NICD said with the new cases reported on Saturday, the positivity rate stood at 28%.
It said a total of 13,848,194 tests had been conducted in both the public and private sectors.
“Gauteng accounts for 50% of new cases, with the Western Cape accounting for 11%,” it said.
“Limpopo accounted for 10% of new cases, while KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 9%. The North West accounted for 7%, Mpumalanga for 6%, the Eastern Cape and Free State each accounted for 3%, and the Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.”
There has been an increase of 580 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, the command council said.
