SA records 457 Covid-19 deaths and 15,500 cases in 24 hours

There were 457 Covid-19 related deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Tuesday.

This was the most deaths in a single day since February 2, when 547 fatalities were recorded.

The latest deaths mean that there have now been 62,628 deaths recorded across SA since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March last year. The NICD also reported on Tuesday that there were 15,501 Covid-19 infections recorded in the past day, meaning that there have been 2,090,909 total cases recorded to date.

The positivity rate of 26.2% dropped significantly from Monday night's 31.6%.

Gauteng was again the virus epicentre, with 9,215 (59%) of the cases coming from the province. The Western Cape was next with 1,573 cases (10%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 1,302 cases (8%).

The NICD reported that there were 790 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, meaning that there are now 14,995 people being treated in the country's health facilities.

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