By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said South Africa on Sunday recorded 862 new Covid-19-related cases with the cumulative number of cases rising to 1 521 068.
The number of fatalities now stands at 50 678 after 31 more Covid-19 deaths were reported.
The cumulative total of tests conducted to date is 9 255 492 with 18 989 new tests recorded since the last report .
Recoveries now stand at 1 440 874, representing a recovery rate of 94.7%, Mkhize said.
The number of health care workers vaccinated under the Sisonke Protocol is 101 841 as of 6.30pm on 7 March 2021, Mkhize said.
Friday marked one year since the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in South Africa.
The country is currently on coronavirus lockdown alert level 1.
Mkhize said it’s important to delay the third COVID-19 wave for as long as possible.
But, he said this depends on all South Africans following COVID-19 safety protocols.
Mkhize also adds that it’s vital that as many healthcare workers as possible are vaccinated.
“We need to intensify the use of masks and distancing so we can delay, as much as possible, the next wave. We need to vaccinate as many people as possible. This wave can come quicker or later, depending on how we behave.”
Meanwhile on Saturday, 8,431 new deaths and 406,668 new cases were recorded worldwide.
Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were United States with 1,752 new deaths, followed by Brazil with 1,555 and Mexico with 779.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 524,362 deaths from 28,952,953 cases.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 264,325 deaths from 10,938,836 cases, Mexico with 190,357 deaths from 2,125,866 cases, India with 157,756 deaths from 11,210,799 cases, and the United Kingdom with 124,419 deaths from 4,213,343 cases.
As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.