SA records 12,710 new Covid-19 cases and 566 deaths in 24 hours

SA recorded 12,710 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, after two consecutive days of fewer than 10,000 new infections.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday night that the new infections meant that 1,369,426 cumulative cases have now been recorded countrywide since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March last year.

The new infections came from 62,054 tests, at a positivity rate of 20.45%. This is lower than the 22.6% positivity rate recorded on Monday (9,010 cases from 39,901 tests) and the 20.96% positivity rate from Tuesday (9,780 cases from 46,648 tests).

Mkhize on Wednesday also reported that 566 new Covid-19 related deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, taking the national total of fatalities to 38,854.

Of the new deaths, 218 were in KwaZulu-Natal, 104 each in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, 80 were in Gauteng, 46 were in the Free State, eight in the Northern Cape and six in Mpumalanga.

Mkhize said there had been 1,160,412 recoveries to date, at a recovery rate of 84.7%.

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