Durban - South Africa’s Covid-19 death rate climbed to 48 940 on Saturday, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health.
On Saturday, 1 690 new positive Covid-19 cases were recorded.
In total, 1 502 367 South Africans have been infected by the virus with 1 409 553 people reported to have recovered.
An estimated 8 867 659 Covid-19 tests have been conducted by private and public health laboratories to date, with 28 722 recorded over the past 24 hours.
The breakdown of the new deaths per province were as follows:
Eastern Cape 3
Free State - 5
Gauteng - 29
KwaZulu-Natal - 23
Mpumalanga - 6
Western Cape - 15
The latest Covid-19 data comes in the wake of the country rolling out the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to frontline workers.
Nurses and doctors across the country were the first to receive the vaccine this week - 80 000 of which arrived on Tuesday night from Belgium.
The vaccines have been distributed to over 30 vaccination sites across the country.
This week’s inoculations form part of the government's first phase of vaccinations which were intended to target over 1 million healthcare workers.
On Wednesday, Mkhize and President Cyril Ramaphosa oversaw the country’s first vaccinations at the Khayelitsha District Hospital in Cape Town.
The pair were also vaccinated, with Ramaphosa saying that they hoped to instil public confidence in the vaccine’s safety.
IOL