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By IOL Reporter 
5h ago
Cape Town – There has been a further drop in the number of new Covid-19-related cases in South Africa, with 15,046 new cases identified.
On Sunday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize reported that 17,421 new cases had been reported. The cumulative total of Covid-19 cases in South Africa is now 1,246,643.
In a statement Monday, Mkhize reported another 416 deaths: Eastern Cape 163, Free State 30, KwaZulu-Natal 38, Mpumalanga 4, North West 4, Northern Cape 1 and Western Cape 176. This brings the total number of deaths to 33 579.
A cumulative total of 7,236,389 tests have been completed, with 52,496 tests performed since the last report. The number of recoveries now stands at 973,265, representing a recovery rate of 78.1%.
Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks, spent 10 days in intensive care while recovering from Covid-19, the U.S. embassy says.
In a statement Monday, Marks revealed how he had started experiencing Covid-19 symptoms the day after Christmas and ended up in ICU two days later.
“Shortly after admission on December 28, I was transferred to the ICU, where I stayed 10 days before spending three more days in the Covid-19 unit,” he said.
Marks said she was discharged from the hospital late last week and continues to receive care at home.
“My condition is improving and the doctors are confident that I will make a full recovery eventually,” Marks said.
“I will always be grateful for the excellent level of care I received from the South African doctors and nurses who treated me at the hospital.
“I am just one of the tens of thousands of Covid-19 patients that SA hospitals and health workers have treated with the utmost professionalism, putting their own lives at risk to practice their vocation.
“Having watched them on the front lines of this battle for almost a year, and now that I have my own life in their hands, I will always remember their heroism and dedication and all they sacrifice and risk as they fight this dangerous disease on their behalf. of his compatriots, ”he said.
The KwaZulu-Natal health department has blamed staff absenteeism and the high number of patients who came to Wentworth Hospital after a video showed what appeared to be late patient care.
The video, which began circulating over the weekend, showed patients sleeping on the floor, alone or in chairs, while a woman screamed for help and said she couldn’t breathe. In the 90-second video, no staff member is seen responding to or attending to the woman. It is unclear who took the video.
The department said it immediately dispatched a delegation of senior managers from its central office after learning of the video.
Their investigations revealed that the patients seen in the video were awaiting their Covid results and, on the day in question, the hospital had received a particularly high number of patients.
MESS
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