Covid-19 update: SA breaches 80,000 death mark

South Africa continued on an upward trajectory of daily cases of Covid-19 as the country recorded 13,251 cases on Wednesday.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division responsible for the surveillance of Covid-19, has now recorded 2.722,202 laboratory-confirmed cases.

Wednesday’s numbers represent a 20% positivity rate.

“As per the National Department of Health, a further 516 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 80,469 to date,” the institute said.

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It said that a total of 16.162,825 tests had been conducted in both public and private sectors.

“The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (27%), followed by Western Cape (25%). Eastern Cape accounted for 13%; Gauteng Province accounted for 10%; Free State accounted for 7%; Mpumalanga and Northern Cape accounted for 5% each; North West accounted for 4%; and Limpopo Province accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.”

There has been an increase of 606 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.