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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider S. Africa's COVID-19 deaths top 80,000

S. Africa's COVID-19 deaths top 80,000

By Xinhua
Published Aug 26, 2021 06:52 am

JOHANNESBURG -- More than 80,000 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in South Africa since the onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Wednesday.

Healthcare workers brief people queueing for their vaccines about the different vaccines available to administer outside the Transvaco Covid-19 vaccine train stationed at the Springs Train Station outside of Johannesburg, on August 25, 2021. Phill Magakoe / AFP

The country recorded 516 COVID-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours which brought the total number of fatalities to 80,469. Meanwhile, 13,251 new COVID-19 cases have been registered during the same period, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,722,202.

This came as the country was in the midst of the third wave which had been driven by the delta variant. While new cases in the most populated province Gauteng have declined in recent weeks, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has become the new epicenter of COVID-19.

"The total number of cases today is higher than yesterday and higher than the average number of new cases per day over the 7 preceding days. The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased," said the NICD.

Coetzee Angelique, chairperson of the South African Medical Association said the figures were saddening.

"Our members are telling us that the workload is increasing in KZN and the Western Cape. It's very sad that we have lost such a high number of people due to the virus," she told Xinhua.

"One of the problems is that people don't go to clinics when they have symptoms and they start going to hospitals when their situation has deteriorated. If you have a sore throat and are experiencing a cold, go and check, don't wait," she said.

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