81 more die as over 18 000 new Covid-19 infections are recorded in SA

The City of Tshwane is making an impassioned appeal to its residents to continue observing Covid-19 regulations at all times. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi/African News Agency (ANA)

The City of Tshwane is making an impassioned appeal to its residents to continue observing Covid-19 regulations at all times. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Dec 24, 2021

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Johannesburg - More than 18 800 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed on Friday.

This comes as 81 more people were confirmed to have died from the coronavirus complications, according to the Department of Health.

This takes the country’s death toll due to the pandemic-related complications to over 90 743 since March last year.

The latest positive cases bring the number of confirmed cases to over 3.3 million since last year.

The NICD said the positivity rate now stands at 29.4% as over 64 000 people tested for the virus in the same 24 hour cycle.

“Today the institute reports 18 847 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 393 109. This increase represents a 29.4% positivity rate.

“As per the National Department of Health, a further 81 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90 743 to date.

“20 980 990 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors,” the NICD said.

In terms of hospital admissions, 321 people were admitted to hospitals in the country over the past 24 hours.

KwaZulu-Natal accounted for most of the news infections yet again.

This is the breakdown of infections according to provinces:

KZN - 26%

Western Cape - 25%

Gauteng - 18%

Eastern Cape - 11%

North West - 5%

Free State - 5%

Mpumalanga, Limpopo - 4%

Northern Cape - 3%

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