Minister of health Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now 97,302 total cases of coronavirus in South Africa.
This is an increase of 4,621 cases from 92,681 cases reported on Saturday, which saw a 24-hour record increase of 4,966 infections.
The minister announced 53 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the total up to 1,930, and a mortality rate of 1.98%, while recoveries increased to 51,608, which translates to a recovery rate of 53%.
A total of 1.328 million tests have been conducted to date, with 34,452 over the past 24 hours, Dr Mkhize said.
As of today, the cumulative number of confirmed #COVID19 cases is 97 302, total number of deaths is 1930 and the total number of recoveries is 51 608. pic.twitter.com/1cbPXLgVRr
— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) June 21, 2020
Globally, since 31 December 2019 and as of 21 June 2020, 8.95 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported, including in excess of 467,000 deaths, and 4.75 million recoveries.
In Denmark, a study of 200 patients who had recovered from Covid-19 showed that about 20% of them tested positive for the coronavirus four weeks or more after they had been declared healthy, TV2 reported.
Scientists from the Aarhus Universtity said the preliminary results could indicate that the virus has somehow been “re-activated,” but there’s nothing to suggest the patients might be contagious, said Martin Tolstrup, the doctor behind the study.
The scientists will now conduct new tests to determine whether the virus is still active in the patients’ bodies, Bloomberg reported.
Fraud and money laundering
The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) is investigating ‘a glaring instance of fraud and money laundering’, the Sunday Times reports, after a substantial amount of money was reported to have been paid into a single account.
The paper reported that R5.7 million in UIF funds, which was intended for 200 workers impacted by the Covid-19 lockdown, was paid to a single person.
“In an instant he went from having R12 in his account to more than R5 million,” the Sunday paper said.
The money was then quickly sent to friends and businesses over the course of five days.
The AFU and the UIF are now investigating the matter, and 28 bank accounts have been frozen in connection with the fraudulent transaction.
“We are investigating whether there was complicity on the part of those working at the UIF. There is a suspicion that there may have been criminal activity between UIF officials and the end recipient of the money,” said the NPA’s Sipho Ngwema.
The Sunday Time reported that while the person was registered to receive financial relief, it was not the ‘windfall’ that came his way.
Mfopha said analysis of the person’s transaction history showed that they disbursed R5.5 million in a series of payments to four people. They also spent R5,000 on cryptocurrency through the online trading platform Luno.