SA records 1 868 new COVID-19 cases

South Africa has recorded 1 868 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 690 291.

This increase represents a 6.5% positivity rate.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 25 deaths and of these 10 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99 681 to date,” the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Thursday.

A total of 23 343 250 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.

“The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (34%), followed by the Western Cape (24%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 16%; Limpopo and the North West each accounted for 6% respectively; Mpumalanga accounted for 5%; Free State accounted for 4%; Eastern Cape accounted for 3%, and the Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases,” the NICD said.

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested is 6.5%, which is the same as Wednesday (6.5%). The seven-day average is 6.0%, which is lower than Wednesday (6.1%).

In the past 24 hours, there has been an increase of 45 hospital admissions.