Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has confirmed that the number of Covid-19 cases in South Africa has increased by 12 271 to 1 404 839.
At 28 359, Gauteng currently has the highest number of active Covid-19 cases, with the Western Cape following closely at 26 480 active cases.
The province with the lowest number of active cases is the Eastern Cape with 4 347. The province’s Nelson Mandela Bay was declared a hotspot ahead of the festive season.
The cumulative total of tests conducted to date is 7 947 007 with 64 143 new tests conducted since the last report.
Over the past 24 hours, a further 498 deaths have been recorded, bringing the death toll in the country since the start of the pandemic to 40 574.
Mkhize said 201 were from Gauteng, 125 from KwaZulu-Natal, 71 from the Western Cape, 45 from the Free State, 19 from Limpopo, 18 from Mpumalanga and two from the Northern Cape.
To date, 1 217 492 people have recovered from the disease, putting the country’s recovery rate at 86,6 percent, Mkhize added.
Meanwhile South Africa’s regulator granted the health department permission to distribute the vaccine from AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford in its first nod for Covid-19 inoculations.
South Africa recently struck a deal with The Serum Institute to receive the country’s first coronavirus vaccines this month and next, as part of the earliest phase of a plan the government says will inoculate two-thirds of the population by the end of 2021.
An initial 1.5 million doses will come from the institute, which is producing the version developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford, Mkhize said in a statement earlier this month.
They will be reserved for health workers, and negotiations are ongoing with other manufacturers about further supplies, he said.
Compiled by Lehlohonolo Lehana.