NEW Covid-19 infection cases in South Africa increased by more than 5 000 on Sunday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has announced.
“Today [Sunday] the institute reports 5 604 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 413 540. This increase represents a 27.2% positivity rate,” the NICD said.
“As per the national Department of Health, a further 41 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90 814 to date.”
The institute said 21 059 203 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
The majority of new cases on Sunday were from the Western Cape (28%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (26%). Gauteng accounted for 17%; Eastern Cape accounted for 9%, Free State 5% and North West each accounted for 5%, and Mpumalanga for 4%.
Limpopo and Northern Cape each accounted for 3% of Sunday’s new cases.
Regarding hospital admissions, the NICD said there had been an increase of 42 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
On Saturday, the Department of Health announced that more than 20 000 people received a Covid-19 vaccine on Christmas Eve.
At least 20 812 people received a dose of Covid-19 vaccine while 12 668 were fully vaccinated.
A total of 15.5 million adult South Africans out of a population of 39 798 201 are now fully inoculated against the virus.
This amounts to 39 percent of the population.
The Free State, Limpopo and Western Cape have vaccinated more than 50 percent of their population.