SA records more than 5,000 new Covid-19 cases for second straight day

SA recorded 5,360 new Covid-19 cases and 54 deaths in the past 24 hours, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday.

This means that there have now been a cumulative 1,680,373 infections and 56,765 deaths recorded in SA since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the country in March last year.

Mkhize said the new infections came from 43,776 tests, at a positivity rate of 12.24%.

Of the newly recorded deaths, 17 were in Gauteng, 14 were in the Western Cape, 12 were in the Free State, four were in both the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and three were in the Northern Cape. There were no fatalities recorded in Limpopo, Mpumalanga or the North West in the past 24 hours.

Mkhize also reported that there were now 1,567,635 total recoveries recorded to day, at a recovery rate of 93.3%.

In terms of the vaccine rollout, the ministry provided the following graphic:

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