Durban - Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Monday night confirmed 22 more Covid-19 related deaths in South Africa, taking the country's death toll to 286.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in SA has increased to 16 433. This is an increase of more than 900 in the last 24 hours, Mkhize announced.
While the Western Cape remains the province with the highest infection rates at 10,035, the Eastern Cape, which now has 2,052 Covid-19 cases is fast catching up with Gauteng, which has registered 2,343 cases to date, while KwaZulu-Natal has 1,567 confirmed cases.
Infection rates in Free State, which has 163 confirmed cases, Limpopo (88), Mpumalanga (76), North West (72) and Northern Cape with just 37, have still maintained low infection rates.
Mkhize thanked healthcare staff for taking care of those to have lost their lives and said there had been over 475 071 Covid-19 tests conducted to date, with more than 14 198 being done in the past 24 hours.
Mkhize said as the country prepared to move down to Level 3, high risk age groups and those with co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac disease, obesity and people living with HIV must take extra precautions and necessary steps to avoid possible exposure to Covid-19.
The total number of recoveries to date is 7 298, he said.
Globally, 4,862 329 people have tested positive for Covid-19 while 318,763 people have lost their lives. There have also been 1,889,096 people who have recovered from coronavirus.
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** If you think you have been exposed to the Covid-19 virus, please call the 24-hour hotline on 0800 029 999 or visit sacoronavirus.co.za