Five more Covid-19 deaths in SA, nearly 100 new cases

The number of South Africans to have died of Covid-19 has increased to 18, the health ministry announced on Wednesday.

Half of the deaths have been in KwaZulu-Natal.

In a statement, minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said that there had been five additional deaths confirmed since he released the figures at an event on Tuesday.

There were also 96 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 since Tuesday, taking the total to 1,845 across SA.

Of the new reported deaths, two were in KwaZulu-Natal, two in Gauteng and two in the Free State. All of them were men, aged between 49 and 77.

The ministry's figures reveal that there have now been nine deaths in KZN, and three each in Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Free State.

There have been 63,776 Covid-19 tests done across SA - an increase of 5,678 from Monday.

The highest number of confirmed cases is in Gauteng, with 782, followed by the Western Cape with 495, and KZN with 354.

The Free State has 88 confirmed cases, the Eastern Cape 45, Limpopo and Mpumalanga 21 each, the North West 15 and the Northern Cape 13. There are 11 "unallocated" cases.