By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 809 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,906,422. This increase represents a 3.4% positivity rate.
The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (22%), followed by Western Cape (19%). Eastern Cape accounted for 16%; Gauteng Province accounted for 12%; Northern Cape accounted for 11%; Free State accounted for 9%; North West accounted for 7%; Mpumalanga accounted for 3%; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.
The cumulative number of cases by province is shown in the table below:
| Province | Total cases for 02 October 2021 | Adjusted numbers after harmonisation | Updated total cases on 02 October 2021 | New cases on 03 October 2021 | Total cases for 03 October 2021 | Percentage total |
| Eastern Cape | 290,771 | 0 | 290,771 | 127 | 290,898 | 10.0 |
| Free State | 161,652 | 0 | 161,652 | 70 | 161,722 | 5.6 |
| Gauteng | 916,751 | 0 | 916,751 | 97 | 916,848 | 31.5 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 512,372 | 0 | 512,372 | 177 | 512,549 | 17.6 |
| Limpopo | 121,888 | 0 | 121,888 | 11 | 121,899 | 4.2 |
| Mpumalanga | 151,051 | 0 | 151,051 | 25 | 151,076 | 5.2 |
| North West | 149,623 | 0 | 149,623 | 59 | 149,682 | 5.2 |
| Northern Cape | 91,007 | 0 | 91,007 | 87 | 91,094 | 3.1 |
| Western Cape | 510,498 | 0 | 510,498 | 156 | 510,654 | 17.6 |
| Total | 2,905,613 | 0 | 2,905,613 | 809 | 2,906,422 | 100.0 |
NICD said a further 27 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 87,780 to date.
Vaccine Update.
For updates on the national vaccine programme, click here.
Meanwhile overall, China and India have administered the highest number of doses, with about 2.2 billion and 886 million respectively. The US ranks third, with more than 392 million.
But when breaking the figures down by doses per 100 people in countries with a population of at least one million, the United Arab Emirates, Cuba and Uruguay top the list.
Covid-19 was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China, in late 2019 but the outbreak spread quickly across the globe in the first months of 2020.
It was declared a global pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020.
A pandemic is when an infectious disease is passing easily from person to person in many parts of the world at the same time.