More than 500 new Covid-19 deaths in one day as SA passes active case landmark

SA hit a landmark for active Covid-19 cases on Tuesday night.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that there were 176,356 total active cases across the country. This was 4,591 cases more than the 171,765 announced on Monday night.

Before Tuesday night, the previous high of announced active cases was 173,590 — recorded on July 20. Less than two months ago, on November 12, the number of active cases was as low as 33,753.

Mkhize said that 14,410 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the national total of infections to 1,127,759. The infections came from 47,875 tests, a positivity rate of 30.1%.

KwaZulu-Natal is still the virus epicentre, with 71,178 active cases. It is followed by the Western Cape (41,924) and Gauteng (31,681).

There were also 513 new Covid-19 related deaths confirmed on Tuesday night, taking the national number of fatalities from the illness to 30,524. This is only the second time the country has recorded more than 500 deaths in a single day.

Of the new deaths, 202 were in the Western Cape, 124 were in the Eastern Cape, 92 were in KwaZulu-Natal, 64 in Gauteng, 14 in the Free State and the Northern Cape, and three in Limpopo.

To date, 920,879 recoveries have been recorded, a recovery rate of 81.6%.

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