SA records 188 more COVID-19 deaths

A total of 188 COVID-19 related deaths were reported on Monday, bringing the toll to 16 586 since the outbreak.

Of the additional fatalities, 178 were reported in the Free State, four in the Western Cape, three in the Eastern Cape, two in Gauteng and one in KwaZulu-Natal.

However, according to Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, there has been a “two-week delay” in the reporting of Free State deaths, as the province collated data from the various districts and verified this against Home Affairs data.

“This is part of efforts to improve the quality of data by aligning information from facilities with Home Affairs statistics. Data from post-mortem swabs also had to be collated and verified. This is in line with the recommendations of the Medical Research Council,” Mkhize explained, adding that the data are now up to date.

Also, the cumulative number of detected COVID-19 cases is 671 669 after 903 cases were identified.

Meanwhile, there are now 604 478 patients who have recuperated, which translates to a recovery rate of 90%.

This is information is based on the 4 152 480 test performed, 9 014 of which were conducted since the last report.

To date, over 32.7 million COVID-19 cases and 991 000 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

There were more than two million new cases and 36 000 new deaths reported between and 21 and 27 September 2020.

According to the agency, the cumulative deaths are expected to exceed one million in the coming week.

“The region of the Americas continues to carry the highest incidence of COVID-19 globally, reporting similar numbers of new cases and deaths as the previous week. The region accounts for 38% of all new cases and 52% of all new deaths reported in the past seven days.”

The Eastern Mediterranean region showed the greatest increase (9%) in cases in the past week, while the European region reported a substantial rise in deaths, with a 9% increase compared to the previous week.

Meanwhile, WHO African, Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions recorded decreases in the new cases and deaths.

South Africa continues to report the highest number of new cases and new deaths, followed by Ethiopia, Uganda, Algeria and Mozambique.

South Africa also has the highest number of cumulative cases and deaths per one million population in the region, followed by Cabo Verde, which has reported increasing numbers of cases, and deaths over the past month.