SA records 311 Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours as provinces 'verify data' dating back to December

A data verification process has been cited as the reason for more than 300 Covid-19 related deaths being recorded in the past 24 hours.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Friday night that 311 fatalities linked to the coronavirus had been recorded since the release of Thursday's statistics.

This is the highest number of deaths in a 24-hour period since 386 were recorded on February 9.

“Some provinces have undertaken data verification processes backdated to December 2020. During this process, additional data has been captured and recorded,” said Mkhize.

Of the newly-recorded deaths, 138 were in KwaZulu-Natal, 65 in the North West, 43 in Limpopo, 21 in both Gauteng and the Free State, 13 in the Western Cape, six in Mpumalanga, three in the Northern Cape and one in the Eastern Cape.

To date, 52,035 fatalities have been recorded across SA.

Mkhize also reported on Friday that 1,462 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in the past 24 hours. The new infections were from 28,519 tests — a positivity rate of 5.12%. This means that 1,535,423 total infections have been recorded across SA.

To date, 1,461,196 recoveries have been recorded at a recovery rate of 95%.

In terms of vaccinations, 182,983 health-care workers to have had received the Covid-19 jab by 6.30pm on Friday.

TimesLIVE