Today South Africa can celebrate less than 20,000 active cases in the entire country!
Johannesburg, South Africa (21 April 2021) – South Africa’s active cases have just dipped below 20,000, while our recoveries are 5,370 away from reaching the 1,5 million mark!
The country started to decline on the 11th of January 2021 – 100 days ago! We have seen 19 days with slight increases during this period, but numbers have stayed in the same range and have now officially dipped below 20,000! The last time our active cases were this low was on the 7th of June 2020 – 318 days ago!
Over the last 24 hours, 853 new coronavirus infections have been identified in the country, which brings our active cases to 19,849 and our recoveries to 1,494,630. We currently have a 96,6% recovery rate in closed cases and are making our way to even more recoveries every single day.
While the South African Government and many mainstream media News sites push the “total cases”, here at Good Things Guy, we like to look at the same numbers in a different way – a way that breaks down that big number into what it really means! And by doing this, we are able to see that our recoveries far outweigh our active cases.
COVID-19 is the greatest global shock in decades. Millions of lives have been lost, and the world’s economy likely faces the worst recession since the 1930s. The resulting loss of employment and income will cause further damage to livelihoods, health, and sustainable development.
The numbers can often seem confusing. As of today, South Africa has conducted 10,379,089 tests and had 1,568,366 total positive results, but positive results change daily as people recover, so even though there have had over 1,5 million positive results, we have also had almost 1,5 million recoveries. See confusing.
Here is a different way to report the numbers while still using the same numbers:
We know that this pandemic is significant, and many will suffer, and we also know not everyone will survive, but the majority of South Africa (and the globe) will recover!
We can also break down the Active Cases further to see where each region stands:
- KwaZulu-Natal: 5,587
- Northern Cape: 3,358
- Gauteng: 2,704
- North West: 2,601
- Free State: 2,205
- Western Cape: 2,081
- Mpumalanga: 854
- Limpopo: 258
- Eastern Cape: 201
Currently, the Worldometers website states that over 98% of global cases (that are no longer active) have recovered. In comparison, South Africa’s closed recovery rate sits at around 96,6% (closed cases are the recoveries versus deaths after moving from active).
Some people ask why some media houses state that we have a recovery rate of 95% and some state that the recovery rate is 96,6%.
It seems the 95% are taking that number from the government reporting who are looking at the total number of positive cases (1,568,366) and then working out the percentage based on the recoveries (1,494,630), but the global standard is to look at the numbers in two separate columns – Active Cases is one number while Closed Cases (recoveries and deaths) is a totally separate number and will give us the true recovery rate.
Once you test positive, you become an Active Case and then after 14 days move to Closed Cases where you either survive as a recovery or tragically pass on – we also understand that there are people with long-covid who still suffer long after they are moved into the recovery space, but unless you are in hospital, then the global standard is to move you into “recoveries” after 14 days.
So looking at it from this point of view, then as of this moment, we have a total death rate of 3,4% in South Africa and a true recovery rate of 96,6% in all closed cases.
Here in South Africa, a COVID-19 support group has been created on Facebook for people who have recovered, and people who are looking for hope. Everyday South Africans are sharing their inspirational recovery stories which really does bring a different perspective to this pandemic.
Societies need to protect themselves, and to recover, as quickly as possible. But we cannot go back to the way we did things before. Increasing numbers of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, SARS and Ebola, have made the jump from wildlife to humans – and all available evidence suggests that COVID-19 has followed the same route. Once human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 began, national and international surveillance and response systems were not strong or fast enough to completely halt transmission. And as infections spread, a lack of universal health coverage has left billions of people, including many in rich countries, without reliable and affordable access to medical treatment. Massive inequalities have meant that deaths and loss of livelihoods have been strongly driven by socioeconomic status, often compounded by gender and minority status.
Attempting to save money by neglecting environmental protection, emergency preparedness, health systems, and social safety nets, has proven to be a false economy – and the bill is now being paid many times over. The world cannot afford repeated disasters on the scale of COVID-19, whether they are triggered by the next pandemic, or from mounting environmental damage and climate change. Going back to “normal” is not good enough.
In adversity, the crisis has also brought out some of the best in our societies, from solidarity among neighbours, to the bravery of health and other key workers in facing down risks to their own health to serve their communities, to countries working together to provide emergency relief or to research treatments and vaccines. The “lockdown” measures that have been necessary to control the spread of COVID-19 have slowed economic activity, and disrupted lives – but have also given some glimpses of a possible brighter future. In some places, pollution levels have dropped to such an extent that people have breathed clean air, or have seen blue skies and clear waters, or have been able to walk and cycle safely with their children – for the first times in their lives. The use of digital technology has accelerated new ways of working and connecting with each other, from reducing time spent commuting, to more flexible ways of studying, to carrying out medical consultations remotely, to spending more time with our families. Opinion polls from around the world show that people want to protect the environment, and preserve the positives that have emerged from the crisis, as we recover.
Our hearts go out to everyone who has tragically lost their lives to this virus, and our thanks go out to all the incredible frontline heroes who are helping us get through this pandemic. Please remember that we still need to be wearing our masks, physical distancing and staying safe.
by 