More than 11,000 new Covid-19 cases in SA, deaths rise by 240

After two consecutive days of slightly more than 7,000 new infections, SA's health ministry reported 11,384 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.

There are now 471,123 cases across the country.

The ministry also reported 240 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 7,497 fatalities.

Of the new deaths, 156 in Gauteng, 34 were in the Eastern Cape, 27 in KZN, and 23 in Western Cape.

According to ministry figures, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal again accounted for the highest number of new infections, with nearly 3,800 and nearly 3,150 new infections respectively.

This means that Gauteng remains the country's Covid-19 epicentre, with 168,369 total cases — while KZN (71,240 cases) is soon set to overtake the Eastern Cape (75,872 cases) as the third worst hit province.

Currently, KZN and Gauteng are growing at about 2,000 cases a day more than other provinces.

“The number of recoveries currently stands at 297,967 which translates to a recovery rate of 63%," the ministry said.

The figures were based on a total of 2,873,163 tests, of which 42,528 were conducted in the past 24-hour cycle.