By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Department of Health says the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases is 1,696,564 with 5,074 new cases identified.
South Africa currently has 61,557 active cases, the Department of Health confirmed.
A further 45 more Covid-19 related deaths were reported, with 0 from Eastern Cape, 16 from Free State, 7 from Gauteng, 1 from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), 0 from Limpopo, 0 from Mpumalanga, 0 from North West, 15 from Northern Cape and 6 from Western Cape.
This brings the total number of Covid-19 related deaths to 56,974.
Recoveries now stand at 1,578,033 representing a recovery rate of 93,0%.
A total of 11,876,594 tests have been completed with 35,821 new tests conducted since the last report.
The number of people vaccinated under the Sisonke programme and under phase two stands at 1,343,443.
Meanwhile the Delta variant of the coronavirus first identified in India is “around 40 percent more transmissible” than the Alpha variant that caused the last wave of infections in Britain, health minister Matt Hancock says.
Delta has since become the dominant strain in the UK, according to official data, threatening next steps in the country’s reopening plan later this month.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 3,723,381 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1000 GMT Sunday.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 597,377 deaths from 33,357,240 cases.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 472,531 deaths, India with 346,759, Mexico with 228,754 and Peru with 186,073.
The World Health Organization estimates that the pandemic’s overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, because of the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.