Cape Town - Over the past 24 hours, South Africa recorded 1 897 new Covid-19 cases.
A further 48 deaths have also been reported, the national health department confirmed on Friday.
Cumulatively, the country has recorded 712 412 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.
Most provinces have seen a significant reduction in incidence risk over the past week.
Testing data
The number of tests conducted to date is 4 657 116, with 23 445 new tests having been conducted since the previous report was compiled on Thursday.
Deaths and recoveries
To date, 643 523 people have recovered from the virus, which translates to a recovery rate of 90%.
The total number of fatalities recorded now stands at 18 891. Of these, 7 occurred in the last 48 hours.
Provincial data
Epidemiology
“In the past week all provinces, except KwaZulu-Natal Province reported a decline in weekly incidence risk, compared to the previous week,” the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Friday.
According to the NICD, the reduction ranged from 37 cases per 100 000 persons (39.1% reduction) in the Northern Cape to 1 case per 100 000 persons (5.2% reduction in Gauteng and 3.7% reduction in the Eastern Cape. KwaZulu-Natal showed an increase in weekly incidence risk of 1 case per 100 000 persons (10.4% increase).
The Free State reported the highest weekly incidence risk with 72 cases per 100 000 persons, followed by the Northern Cape with 57 cases per 100 000 persons, the Western Cape Province with 19.6 cases per 100 000 persons and North West with 19.9 cases per 100 000 persons.
“The weekly incidence risk in all the other provinces was less than 15 cases per 100 000 persons,” the NICD said.
IOL