SA records 5,885 new Covid-19 cases as positivity rate drops to 10%

SA recorded 5,885 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, but it was encouraging that the positivity rate - the number of new infections compared to the number of tests in the same period - declined towards a single-figure percentage.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Friday that the new infections came at a 10.3% positivity rate.

This comes after the NICD has, twice this week, commented on the fact that the number of cases being recorded across SA was on the decline - though it said that this didn't mean that the country's citizens could become complacent.

Of the new cases, the NICD said that the highest number were in KwaZulu-Natal (1,341), followed by the Western Cape (1,282). The Eastern Cape (960), Free State (654) and Gauteng (550) all passed the 500-mark for new infections in the past day.

In total, 2,848,925 cases have been confirmed countrywide since the outbreak of the virus in March 2020.

There were also 281 more Covid-19 related deaths reported in the past day, taking the total number of fatalities to date to 84,608.

There was also an increase of 330 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, meaning that there are now 10,726 people currently admitted in the country's hospitals for Covid-19 treatment.

TimesLIVE