Cape Town - More than 11046 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in South Africa on Thursday, taking the cumulative total to 482 169 in SA.
According to the Health Ministry, 315 more people have died from Covid-19-related illnesses.
Health Minster, Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that of the deaths, 121 were from the Eastern Cape, 96 from Gauteng, 55 from KwaZulu-Natal, 34 from the Western Cape and 9 from the North West. He said this brings the cumulative number of deaths to 7 812.
Mkhize said the number of recoveries currently stands at 309 601 which translates to a recovery rate of 64%.
The total number of tests conducted to date is 2 918 049 with 44 886 new tests conducted since the last report.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization said that Covid-19 infections in Africa will exceed one million cases in the coming days as the pandemic surges in several hotspot countries. In a little more than three weeks, the number of cases on the continent almost doubled to 889 457, with 18 806 deaths.
According to the WHO, overall, the pandemic is accelerating with the number of new cases increasing by 50% during the last 14 days compared with the previous fortnight.
However, only five countries account for about 75% of the cumulative Covid-19 cases – they are Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. South Africa alone accounts for around half of the continent’s total cases. Deaths are also increasing.
WHO said seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa which had imposed lockdowns and have now started easing them have experienced a 20% jump in cases over the past two weeks. Some countries such as the Republic of the Congo and Morocco have had to re-implement partial restrictions because of an increase in cases.