SA records 3 520 new Covid-19 infections on Friday

Cape Town - A total of 3 520 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Friday according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

“Today the institute reports 3 520 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 576 379,” NICD said.

The majority of South Africa’s new cases on Friday originated from Gauteng - the province has recorded the highest number of cases per day since Monday.

Gauteng continues to administer the majority of South Africa’s vaccines on a daily basis. South Africa administered 83 719 vaccines on Friday, 28 496 occurred in Gauteng.

In the last 24 hours, 35 307 tests were conducted – 56.6% occurred within the private sector. Friday’s number of tests, coupled with the number of new cases represents a positivity rate of 10%.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of Covid-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 103 deaths and of these, 10 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours,” the institute said.

Meanwhile, NICD data reveals an additional 163 hospital admissions in the last 24 hours, however, the number of patients currently admitted has been consistently decreasing since Monday.

The total number of admitted hospital patients in SA per day: