South Africa records 1 538 new COVID-19 cases

South Africa on Tuesday recorded 1 538 new COVID-19 cases, said the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

The figure brought the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 725 177. The increase represented a 6.2% positivity rate, which was higher than Monday’s 5.4%. The 7-day average is 5.9%.

The Institute said 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 15 deaths and of these, seven occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100 067 to date.

A total of 23 947 309 tests have been conducted in both public and private sector labs.

The majority of new cases Tuesday were recorded in Gauteng (39%), followed by Kwa-Zulu Natal (24%). Western Cape accounted for 23%; Eastern Cape accounted for 6% and Mpumalanga accounted for 3%. Free State and North West each accounted for 2% respectively. Northern Cape and Limpopo accounted for less than 1% of the new cases.

On hospital admissions, the NICD said there had beenan increase of 34 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.