Cape Town - South Africa’s Covid-19 death toll reached 29 577 deaths on Sunday.
This, after 402 more Covid-19 related deaths were reported on Sunday.
In addition, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, in his daily Covid-19 statement revealed that the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in South Africa was now 1 100 748 with Gauteng leading the tally at 298 068.
Regrettably, a further 402 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported: 109 in the Eastern Cape, 2 in the Free State, 73 in Gauteng, 85 in KwaZulu-Natal, 23 in Limpopo, 3 in the Northern Cape and 107 in the Western Cape 107.
This brings the total to 29 577 deaths.
The cumulative total of tests done to date is 6 742 853 with 36 622 tests conducted in the past 24 hours.
According to the Health Department, the total recoveries are 903 679, representing a recovery rate of 82,1%.
There are currently 167 492 active cases of Covid-19 in South Africa.
Government aims to vaccinate 67 percent of SA population by end of 2021, says Mkhize
Earlier on Sunday, Mkhize said that the government hopes to vaccinate about 67 percent of the population against the coronavirus by the end of this year, and negotiations are under way in an attempt to secure vaccines as early as February.
Mkhize said the issue of rolling out vaccines had to be handled with urgency "and that is what has driven us to expedite the availability of vaccines".
"We believe that vaccines have to be made available to all the South Africans, starting with front-line health care workers and the most vulnerable to ensure there is protection for them first as the most vulnerable groups. The vaccines will need to be made available quickly so that most of our citizens are covered by the end of the first year of rollout - this year," he said.