Picture: WebMD

Faizel Patel – 14/08/2020

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

The Health Department has announced that the number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa has risen to 579,140.

This is an increase of 6,275 from Thursday’s announcement.

The number of deaths has also increased by 286 bringing the total to 11,556.

Gauteng has the most infections with 197,531 followed by Western Cape at 101,579, Eastern Cape at 83,372, KwaZulu-Natal 103,744, Free State 30,837, North West 22,816, Mpumalanga 20,554, Limpopo 11,214, Northern Cape 7,443 and unallocated infections 50.

The total number of recoveries to date is 461,734 which translates to a recovery rate of 79%.

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted to date is 3,351,111 this is an increase of 35,614 which were done in the last 24 hours.

“Regrettably we report 286 new COVID-19 related deaths: 42 from Eastern Cape, 20 from the Free State, 28 from North West, 76 from Gauteng, 54 from KwaZulu Natal,22 from Mpumalanga, 18 from Northern Cape and 28 from Western Cape. This brings the cumulative total of reported COVID-19 related deaths to 11,556.

Mkhize has expressed his condolences to the affected families of those who have succumbed to the pandemic.