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By IOL Reporter 
Oct 20, 2020
Durban: A total of 1,050 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in South Africa, bringing the country’s cumulative number of cases to 706,304.
The Health Ministry said the total number of tests carried out to date is 4,581,346 with 15,366 new tests carried out since the last report.
“Sadly, we reported 164 Covid-19 related deaths: 46 in the Eastern Cape, 41 in the Free State, 52 in Gauteng, one in Mpumalanga, two in the Northern Cape, eight in the Western Cape, nine in KwaZulu Natal, and five in Limpopo. This brings the total number of Covid-19-related deaths to 18,656, “the ministry said.
The country’s recovery rate remains at 90% with 639,568 people who have contracted and recovered from the virus.
According to the World Health Organization’s Weekly Epidemiological Update, the incidence of new Covid-19 cases has continued to accelerate, while the incidence of new deaths has remained relatively stable.
The update revealed that as of October 18, more than 40 million cases and 1.1 million deaths had been reported worldwide, with more than 2.4 million new cases and 36,000 new deaths reported during the last week.
The update further found that the European region has continued to report a rapid increase in cases and deaths, with more than 927,000 new cases reported last week – a 25% weekly increase in cases compared to the previous week – contributing 38 % of all new cases reported worldwide.
Similarly, the number of deaths continues to rise with a 29% increase over last week. Increases, albeit more gradual, were also observed in the African, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific regions.
The update revealed that declines were still being reported in the Americas region and the South-East Asia Region; although the incidence of new infections remains high and together these two regions contribute more than half of the new cases and deaths observed globally. The countries that reported the highest number of cases in the last week remain the same as last week: India, the United States of America, France, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
MESS
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