South Africa Records 21 099 New COVID-19 Cases

South Africa reported 21 099 new daily Coronavirus cases, the highest since the week began.

This means the country now has 3 353 106 confirmed cases, while the death toll stands at 90 587 after 99 more people lost their lives.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), KwaZulu-Natal, which is currently the epicentre of the fourth wave, accounted for 5 411 new infections.

It is followed by the Western Cape with 4 609 cases, 3 807 in Gauteng and 2 327 in the Eastern Cape.

“This increase represents a 30.6% positivity rate,” the NICD said on Wednesday, adding that the seven-day average was 29.8%, lower than the 30.1% that was recorded on Tuesday.

In addition, 9 324 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalised, of which 593 were admitted in the past 24 hours.

According to the Department of Health, the cumulative number of people who have beat COVID-19 stands at 3 052 399, translating to a recovery rate of 91%.

Meanwhile, the department announced that it administered 58 349 new COVID-19 vaccines, of which 34 642 were first doses of either Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

This pushes the number of distributed vaccines since the start of the rollout programme to 27 733 331.

The latest data show that 15 463 240 or 38.85% adults are now fully jabbed in South Africa, while 17 728 079 over 18s have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccines administered locally.

So far, 873 570 vaccines have been given to children aged between 12 and 17. Of these, 11 496 were administered since the last reporting cycle. – SAnews.gov.za