In South Africa, private and National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) public laboratories perform COVID-19 testing. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) collects the COVID-19 data as part of its public health surveillance activities. However, for the NICD to report quality and comprehensive data, the institute relies on test reports from both private and public laboratories to generate daily COVID-19 statistics, including the number of new cases, new tests, and percent positivity rate.
The NICD was informed in the previous week that information technology (IT) challenges had been experienced by public sector laboratories, which have resulted in reporting delays. Some COVID-19 surveillance data may take longer to reflect on the national line list. This means that some COVID-19 surveillance data may take longer to reflect on the national line list.
Today we report 37 875 cases, which includes 19 840 retrospective cases and 18 035 new cases. In the past 24 hours a total of 18,035 positive COVID-19 cases have been reported. The positivity testing rate today is 28.9%.
The NICD is committed to transparent reporting and will continue to update COVID-19 surveillance databases retrospectively as the impacted public laboratories remedy the existing IT difficulties. This will result in retrospective data being processed onto the line list, increasing the cumulative number of tests.
As per the National Department of Health, a further 21 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90 137 to date.
20 238 805 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors as per the table below.
| Sector | Total tested | New tested | ||
| Private | 10,907,837 | 53.9% | 34,181 | 54.8% |
| Public | 9,330,968 | 46.1% | 28,299 | 45.2% |
| Total | 20,238,805 | 62,414 | ||
PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (42%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (16%). Western Cape accounted for 13%; Eastern Cape and Free State each accounted for 6%; Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 5%; Limpopo accounted for 4%; and Northern Cape accounted for 2% of today’s new cases. The cumulative number of cases by province are shown in the table below:
THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 28.9% which is higher than yesterday (16.4%). The 7-day average is 29.7% today, which is higher than yesterday (24.4%).
| Province | Total cases for 11 December 2021 | Adjusted numbers after harmonisation | Updated total cases on 11 December 2021 | New cases on 12 December 2021 | Retrospective cases on 12 December 2021 | Total cases for 12 December 2021 | Percentage total |
| Eastern Cape | 298,068 | 0 | 298,068 | 1,134 | 2,097 | 300,165 | 9.5 |
| Free State | 170,766 | 0 | 170,766 | 1,071 | 1,938 | 172,704 | 5.5 |
| Gauteng | 1,046,633 | 0 | 1,046,633 | 7,488 | 16,716 | 1,063,349 | 33.6 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 534,137 | 0 | 534,137 | 2,974 | 6,246 | 540,383 | 17.1 |
| Limpopo | 129,877 | 0 | 129,877 | 789 | 1,366 | 131,243 | 4.1 |
| Mpumalanga | 161,661 | 0 | 161,661 | 949 | 2,010 | 163,671 | 5.2 |
| North West | 162,447 | 1 | 162,448 | 917 | 2,346 | 164,794 | 5.2 |
| Northern Cape | 94,597 | -1 | 94,596 | 346 | 501 | 95,097 | 3.0 |
| Western Cape | 531,436 | 0 | 531,436 | 2,367 | 4,655 | 536,091 | 16.9 |
| Total | 3,129,622 | 0 | 3,129,622 | 18,035 | 37,875 | 3,167,497 | 100.0 |
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.
There has been an increase of 96 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 | 258 | 205,320 | 37,512 | 2,494 |
| Public | 407 | 241,186 | 57,470 | 3,069 |
| TOTAL | 665 | 446,506 | 94,982 | 5,563 |
VACCINE UPDATE
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.
Thank you for your interest and remember that adhering to the following preventative measures helps to limit your risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19:
- Getting vaccinated for COVID-19
- Wearing your mask properly to cover your nose
- Opting to gather in ventilated spaces
- Avoid unnecessary gatherings
- Keeping a social distance of one meter or more
- Washing your hands regularly in the day with soap and water
For more information on COVID-19, click here.
Kind regards,
Sinenhlanhla Jimoh, Senior Communications Manager
National Institute for Communicable Diseases
