Of the new deaths, 121 were from the Eastern Cape, 96 from Gauteng, 55 from KwaZulu-Natal, 34 from Western Cape and nine from the North West.
The bulk of the cases are still in Gauteng (171,574), followed by the Western Cape (94,440), the Eastern Cape (77,055) and KwaZulu-Natal (73,919).
The Free State on Thursday passed the 20,000 mark, having recorded 20,398 total infections to date. It is followed by the North West (18,811), Mpumalanga (13,280), Limpopo (8,240) and the Northern Cape (4,402).
Fifty cases have not been allocated.
In the past 24 hours, Gauteng recorded a significantly higher number of infections than other provinces, with 3,205 new cases. KZN recorded 2,679 new cases, the Free State 1,191 and the Eastern Cape 1,183.
Mkhize said that 309,601 recoveries had been recorded - a recovery rate of 64%.
The figures are based on 2,918,049 tests to date, of which 44,886 were completed in the past 24-hour cycle.