South Africa’s Covid-19 Test Positivity Rate Hits Highest Since February

(Bloomberg) -- The positivity rate of Covid-19 tests in South Africa rose to their highest level since February on Wednesday, indicating that the number of undetected infections may be rising 

In total 2,032 tests came back positive, with 8.6% of those tested confirmed to be infected with the virus, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said in a statement. 

That compares with a positivity rate of 8.7% on Feb. 23 and represented the third straight daily increase, rising from 6.2% on Tuesday. As recently as March 28 the positivity rate was 4.5%.

With many Covid-19 cases going undiagnosed the positivity rate is seen as an indication of how fast the virus is spreading. 

South Africa, along with neighboring Botswana, identified the highly infectious omicron variant in November. It was the first country to suffer a surge of infections as a result of the new variant, with daily records occurring in December. 

South Africa has officially recorded more than 100,000 deaths from the disease, more than any other African nation. Excess death data, a measure of mortality against a historical average, shows that the figure could be three times as high.

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