SA records 2,300 new Covid-19 cases as positivity rate passes 10%

SA recorded 2,383 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, but it is confirmation that the positivity rate had climbed past 10% that would be most worrying.

According to health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, the new infections came from 23,352 tests at a positivity rate of 10.2%. 

The government has previously expressed concern when the positivity rate — the number of positive tests against the number of tests taken in the same period — reaches the 10% and 12% marks.

Mkhize also reported that there were 72 Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours.

The latest figures mean that there are now 1,637,848 cumulative cases and 55,874 cumulative fatalities since the outbreak of the coronavirus in SA in March last year.

Of the new deaths, 21 were in the Free State, 13 were in Limpopo and the Western Cape, seven were in Gauteng, six were in the Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.

Mkhize also reported that there were now 171,860 people who had received the first jab of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine across SA.

TimesLIVE