SA passes 68,000 Covid-19 deaths, with more than 500 fatalities confirmed in 24 hours

SA recorded 516 Covid-19 related deaths for the past 24 hours, the health department said on Wednesday — but emphasised that 197 of the fatalities actually took place in the previous 48 hours.

These latest figures mean that there have now been 68,192 confirmed deaths recorded since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in SA.

The NICD said that in the same period there were 16,240 new Covid-19 cases identified across SA. These have now been 2,327,472 confirmed cases to date.

According to the NICD, the majority of new cases were again from Gauteng (32%, or 5,219 cases), followed by the Western Cape (21%, or 3,471 cases) and KwaZulu-Natal (11%, or 1,803 cases).

The North West (1,477 cases), Limpopo (1,388 cases) and Mpumalanga (1,128 cases) all breached the 1,000 mark for new cases in a 24-hour period.

The NICD said that there had also been 831 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, meaning that there are now 17,286 people being treated for Covid-19 in the country's hospitals.

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