The health department has previously indicated that the recorded Covid-19 deaths did not necessarily occur in the 24-hour window, but were only confirmed in that period. Nonetheless, this is the fourth time that the 500 mark has been surpassed under the deadly third wave of infections.
The newly recorded deaths mean that there have now been 70,908 fatalities recorded countrywide linked to coronavirus pandemic.
The NICD also said on Wednesday that there were 17,351 new Covid-19 cases identified in the past 24 hours. Of these, 5,204 were recorded in Gauteng. But there was a worrying increase in cases in the Western Cape, which recorded 4,667 new cases in the past day. KwaZulu-Natal recorded 1,975 infections.
This means that there have been 2,408,525 total cases recorded countrywide since the outbreak of the virus in March last year.
There were also 726 new hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, meaning that there are now 16,252 people being treated in the country's health facilities for Covid-19 related illnesses.
In some good news, SA passed the 7-million mark for number of vaccines administered. There were 194,891 jabs administered by 5pm on Wednesday, taking the national tally to 7,065,432.
TimesLIVE
