111 deaths in a single day as SA hits another grim Covid-19 milestone

Just a day after the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases breached the 100,000 mark in SA, the health ministry confirmed that another milestone had been hit.

On Tuesday, the health ministry announced that 111 Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours, the biggest single-day increase in fatalities. This means that there are now more than 2,000 fatalities linked to the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said that 78 of the new deaths were in the Western Cape, 28 were from the Eastern Cape, four from KwaZulu-Natal and one from Mpumalanga - taking the national total to 2,102.

This is just 15 days after the 1,000 death milestone was hit on June 8. The first fatality was reported on March 27.

There were also an additional 4,518 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, meaning that there were now 106,108 cases across SA.

Before Tuesday's announcement, SA's deadliest days were June 19 (94 deaths), June 15 (88 deaths), and June 8 and 9 (82 deaths each).

The Western Cape remains the epicentre in terms of deaths and cases, while Gauteng has the second highest number of cases and the Eastern Cape has the second highest number of fatalities.

The provincial breakdown of cases, deaths and recoveries were provided on Tuesday as:

• Western Cape: 53,512 cases, 1,536 deaths, 37,234 recoveries; 
• Gauteng: 24,041 cases, 122 deaths, 5,620 recoveries;
• Eastern Cape: 18,108 cases, 331 deaths, 8,259 recoveries;
• KZN: 5,625 cases, 91 deaths, 2,849 recoveries;
• North West: 2,454 cases, 5 deaths, 256 recoveries;
• Free State: 814 cases, 9 deaths, 264 recoveries;
• Mpumalanga: 622 cases, 2 deaths, 181 recoveries;
• Limpopo: 622 cases, 5 deaths, 270 recoveries; and
• Northern Cape: 270 cases, 1 death, 112 recoveries.

The figures were based on 1,382,772 tests, of which 29,596 were in the past 24-hour cycle.