SA records 13,672 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, with KZN hardest hit

KwaZulu-Natal was the hardest-hit province in terms of new Covid-19 infections, figures from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) showed on Thursday.

The province recorded 3,911 cases in the past 24 hours, ahead of the Western Cape which recorded 3,707 cases, Gauteng with 1,579 and the Eastern Cape with 1,436.

In total across SA, there were 13,672 Covid-19 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the cumulative national tally to 2,652,652.

The NICD said that, according to health department figures, there were 317 Covid-19 related deaths recorded in the past day, meaning that there have been 78,694 fatalities recorded to date.

There had also been 536 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, meaning that there are  13,940 people being treated for Covid-19 related illnesses in the country's hospitals.

There was some good news on Thursday, as the 10-million mark for the number of Covid-19 vaccines administered was passed. There were 191,806 vaccines administered on Thursday, taking the total number of jabs in arms across SA to 10,167,749.

Of these, 2,270,275 people have received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and 2,359,026 have received both shots of the double-dose Pfizer vaccine — which means that, as of 5pm on Thursday, there are 4,629,301 people who have been fully vaccinated in SA.

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