SA sees a significant increase in Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. File picture.
CAPE TOWN - South Africa recorded 566 new Covid-19 cases and 11 more deaths on Wednesday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.
On Tuesday, the country recorded 136 new Covid-19 cases and five deaths.
“Today the institute reports 566 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 926 914.
“This increase represents a 1.6% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 11 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 515 to date.
“A total of 18 998 133 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors,” the NICD said.
The bulk of the new cases were from Gauteng.
According to the organisation, the majority of Wednesday’s new cases are from Gauteng which accounts for 59% of cases, followed by the Western Cape with 8%.
KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo each accounted for 7% of new cases respectively while the North West accounted for 6% of cases.
The Eastern Cape and Free State each accounted for 4% of the new cases respectively while Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape each accounted for 3% of the day’s new cases respectively.
The NICD said the proportion of positive new cases/total new tested on Wednesday is 1.6% which is higher than that of Tuesday (0.9%).
It said in the past 24 hours, there has been an increase of 48 hospital admissions.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL