South Africa records 14,728 new COVID cases, 384 deaths

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - South Africa on Wednesday registered 14,728 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period, taking the country’s total number of confirmed infections to 2,638,981, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

The NICD said a further 384 coronavirus-related deaths have also been reported, bringing the total number of fatalities to 78,377.

“This increase represents a 22.1% positivity rate,” it said in its daily update.

The institute said the majority of new cases were from the tourism province of Western Cape, accounting for 27%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal province at 25% and the Eastern Cape province at 13%.

Tuesday's figure for new infections was lower at 10,685, while statistics also show that the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days had slightly decreased.

South Africa has the highest number of infections and deaths on the continent. The country of over 60 million people has administered over 10 million vaccine doses, of which only 4 million people have been fully vaccinated.​​​​​​​

It has also conducted the highest number of COVID-19 tests and monitoring of those who have recovered, been hospitalized or died from the pandemic. Nearly 16 million coronavirus tests have been conducted at both public and private hospitals since the virus was first detected in the country last March.