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For IOL Reporter 
8h ago
Cape Town – A total of 566 new Covid-19-related cases have been identified in South Africa since the last report, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement Monday night.
The cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in South Africa now stands at 1,513,959. A total of 1,168 new cases were identified yesterday.
The total number of tests performed to date is 9,090,273, with 12,794 new tests recorded since the last report.
Another 84 deaths related to Covid-19 have been reported (52 on Sunday): Northwest 36, Western Cape 21, Gauteng 19, North Cape 6 and Eastern Cape 2. The Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga did not register deaths.
The total number of deaths now stands at 50,077. The total number of recoveries is 1,431,336, representing a recovery rate of 94.5%.
Commenting on the launch of the vaccine, Mkhize said that the number of healthcare workers vaccinated under the Sisonke Protocol stands at 73,047 as of 6.30pm today.
Teachers are not at a higher risk of infection in their jobs than people in other professions, according to data released by Britain’s Office for National Statistics on Monday, ahead of the planned reopening of schools in England next week.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has prioritized reopening schools while charting a route out of England’s third national shutdown. They are scheduled to reopen on March 8.
Britain’s Office for National Statistics found no statistical evidence of a difference between school personnel testing positive for coronavirus antibodies, compared to the broader working-age population at the same local authorities.
“Early findings suggest that school personnel were not at higher risk of infection than working-age adults in the community at large, but also that there are some Covid-19 infections in schools,” said Sinéad Langan, Professor of Epidemiology. Clinic at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“There is always the possibility of transmission and it is difficult to say whether the infection is occurring in schools or in the community at large.”
A total of 20.3 million people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in the UK, official data released Monday showed.
Meanwhile, the Finnish government declared a state of emergency on Monday due to the increase in Covid-19 infections, a step that would allow the Nordic country to close restaurants and impose other measures to mitigate the pandemic.
The decision comes as new variants contribute to a sharp increase in infections in the country, which has already closed its borders. The state of emergency would also allow the government to further close schools and limit movement between regions.
MESS
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