NICD confirms 150 cases of Covid-19 in South Africa

The number of local transmission cases has slowed down with only one case being found where a patient had no history of international travel, according to results published by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

The statistics also show that patients who tested positive for Covid-19 reported visiting countries not previously identified by the South African government as high risk, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico, the Netherlands, Thailand and Vietnam.

The number of cases increased by 34 between Wednesday, 18 March and Thursday, 19 March. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the number of cases had increased by 31.

The NICD further stated that they have conducted 4,832 tests, of which 4,682 were negative. There have been no deaths linked to Covid-19 in the country to date. 

According to the statistics released by the NICD, there are still no confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Eastern Cape, the Free State, North West Province and the Northern Cape. 

Gauteng now has 76 cases, KwaZulu-Natal 22 and the Western Cape 46. In Limpopo, one patient has tested positive for Covid-19 and five in Mpumalanga.

Detailing the new cases, the NICD said in a statement that there was one case of local transmission in Gauteng while the other new cases had travel histories that included the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UK, France, the US, Spain, Switzerland, Vietnam, Thailand and the Netherlands. In three cases, the NICD is still tracking patients’ travel history.

There are three new cases in KwaZulu-Natal with one patient’s travel history that must still be tracked and the other two having visited the UK, Mexico and the US. 

One new case has been recorded in Mpumalanga where a 56-year old patient who returned from France tested positive for the virus. 

In the Western Cape, there were no new local transmissions, but 13 new cases with a travel history that included visiting the UK, the Netherlands and Qatar, Mexico, the US, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany, and two whose travel histories are still “pending”. DM