South Africa has recorded under a 1 000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. 845 new cases have brought the accumulative number of cases in the country to 639 362.
Gauteng still has the most confirmed cases at 213 087, which accounts for 33.3% of all the country’s cases.
Deaths breach 15 000
In a statement, the Health Department says, “Regrettably, we report 115 more COVID-19 related deaths: 25 from KwaZulu-Natal, 5 from Gauteng, 12 from Eastern Cape, 7 from Free State,10 from North West, 13 from Western
Cape and 43 from Limpopo. This brings the total number of COVID-19 related deaths to 15 004.”
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As of today, a cumulative total of 639 362 confirmed #COVID19 cases in SA have been recorded. Number of tests conducted to date is 3 808 949 with 8 759 new tests conducted since the last report. We report 115 more COVID-19 related deaths. Number of recoveries is 566 555 pic.twitter.com/MLyvZSPgES
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) September 7, 2020
Exposure to more serious diseases possibly created COVID-19 immunity: Professor
Earlier, Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Shabir Madhi said exposure to other serious diseases in the past may have created an immunity to COVID-19 for many South Africans.
Madhi says they are currently looking into why South Africa’s death rate is far lower than was initially predicted. This comes as the number of daily new infections has also dipped sharply.
Six months after South Africa reported its first case of the coronavirus – the country has recorded more than 600 000 positive cases and just over 15 000 deaths.
According to the Medical Research Council, the actual death toll, could be more than double. However, despite crowded townships, low hygiene levels and the country’s struggling healthcare system – the current death rate is still far lower than was initially predicted. This is in comparison to other countries with similar infection rates, like Columbia, Peru, Mexico and Spain which have all experienced far greater loss of life.
Research is currently being untaken to determine what went right in South Africa.
Madhi says a high level of disease and infection among South Africans may have played a role in many people being immune to COVID-19.
