Institute reports 159 new Covid-19 deaths and 5,920 new cases in SA

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 5,920 new Covid-19 cases in SA on Thursday.

There were 159 new deaths reported and of these, 51 occurred in the past 24-48 hours bringing the total number of fatalities since the start of the pandemic to 92,989.

"Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the national department of health there may be a backlog of Covid-19 mortality cases reported," said the NICD.

The number of laboratory-confirmed cases in SA is now 3,546,808, with the latest increase representing a 14.3% positivity rate.

"The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape (25%), followed by Gauteng (20%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 19%, Eastern Cape and Limpopo each accounted for 9%, Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 5% and Free State and Northern Cape each accounted for 4% of today’s new cases.

"There has been an increase of 293 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours," said the NICD.

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