3,300 new Covid-19 cases and 151 deaths recorded in SA in 24 hours

Health minister Zweli Mkhize said 44,876 people received their first shot of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine in the past 24 hours

21 May 2021 - 23:28 By TimesLIVE

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Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Friday that 44,876 people received the first shot of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine in the past 24 hours.
Image: 123RF/ssilver

There were 3,332 new Covid-19 cases recorded across SA in the past 24 hours, health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Friday.

There were also another 151 Covid-19 deaths recorded in the same period, with Mkhize saying this was because provinces were “continuing with their Covid-19 mortality audits”. Nearly half (72) of these fatalities were recorded in the Free State.

The new cases came from 34,903 tests, at a positivity rate of 9.54%.

According to Mkhize, there have now been 1,628,335 confirmed cumulative Covid-19 cases recorded since the coronavirus outbreak in March last year. There have been 55,719 deaths recorded.

He added that 44,876 people had received the first shot of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine in the past 24 hours, meaning that 161,717 have now been vaccinated under phase two of the country's rollout plan.

TimesLIVE