Covid-19 update: SA reports 5,284 new cases and 41 deaths



South Africa has identified 5,284 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, said on Wednesday.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,941,045. This increase corresponds to a positivity rate of 17.3%.

The majority of new Covid-19 cases today are from Gauteng (32%), followed by Western Cape (28%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 13%; The Eastern Cape accounted for 9%; The Free State accounted for 6%; North West accounted for 4%; Mpumalanga and Northern Cape each accounted for 3%; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s cases.

The country has reported 41 deaths, 6 of which have occurred in the last 24 to 48 hours. This brings the total death toll to 101,043 to date.

There has been an increase of 113 hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.

25,138,638 tests were conducted in both the public and private sectors.

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Wednesday it would sell its patented drugs on a non-profit basis to the world’s poorest countries as part of a new initiative announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“Now is the time to close that gap” between people with access to the latest treatments and those who don’t, managing director Albert Bourla said at a news conference at the exclusive gathering of Swiss mountain resorts.

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“A Deal for a Healthier World” focuses on five areas: infectious diseases, cancer, inflammation, rare diseases and women’s health – in which Pfizer currently holds 23 patents, including patents such as Comirnaty and Paxlovid, its Covid vaccine and its oral treatment.

“This transformative commitment will increase access to nearly 1.2 billion people to Pfizer’s patented medicines and vaccines available in the United States and European Union,” Angela Hwang, group president of Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group, told AFP .

Additional coverage from AFP