South Africa registers 12,771 new cases, 357 COVID deaths

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - South Africa on Thursday recorded 12,771 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period, taking the country’s total number of confirmed infections to 2,734,973, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

The NICD said a further 357 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 80,826.

“This increase represents a 19.3% positivity rate,’’ it said in its daily update.

The institute said the majority of new cases were from KwaZulu-Natal province, accounting for 28%, followed by the Western Cape Province at 24% and the Eastern Cape Province at 13%.

Thursday’s total number of new cases is lower than Wednesday’s total of 13,251, which is higher than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days at 11,760.

The NICD said there has been an increase of 495 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

South Africa, a country of over 60 million people, has administered over 11 million vaccine doses, of which only 5.14 million people have been fully vaccinated.

The country has the highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths on the continent.