SA records nearly 800 cases in the past 24 hours. File Photo: Armand Hough/African News Agency(ANA)
SOUTH Africa recorded 789 new Covid-19 cases and seven more deaths on Friday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.
“Today the institute reports 789 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 928 288.
“This increase represents a 2.8% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further seven Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 562 to date.
“A total of 19 061 166 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors,” the NICD said.
The organisation said that the majority of the new cases for Friday came from Gauteng which accounted for 65% of the day's newly confirmed Covid-19 cases.
The Northern Cape accounted for 7% of the day’s new cases, while North West and the Western Cape followed by accounting for 6% of cases each.
KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 5% of new cases, Mpumalanga accounted for 4% and the Free State for 3% of new cases.
The Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces each only accounted for 2% of new Covid-19 cases.
The NICD said the proportion of positive new cases/total new tested on Friday was 2.8% which was higher than what was recorded on Thursday (1.7%).
The organisation said there had been an increase in hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, as 38 patients were admitted.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL