SA just shy of 50,000 Covid-19 related deaths as 52 new fatalities recorded

SA recorded 1,168 new Covid-19 cases and 52 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the country to the verge of a grim coronavirus milestone.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday night that there were now 1,513,393 confirmed infections and 49,993 fatalities confirmed countrywide since the outbreak almost exactly a year ago.

The new infections came from 22,836 tests, at a positivity rate of 5.11%.

Mkhize also reported that 70,527 vaccines had been administered as of 7.30pm on Sunday.

Of the new deaths, 25 were in Gauteng, 17 were in the Western Cape, four in the Eastern Cape and the Free State and two were in KwaZulu-Natal. There were no deaths recorded in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the North West and the Northern Cape in the past 24 hours.

To date, 1,430,259 recoveries had been recorded at a recovery rate of 94.5%.

TimesLIVE