More than 16,000 new Covid-19 cases across SA as country hits grim 3-million infection mark

With more than 16,000 new Covid-19 cases reported in the past 24 hours, SA passed another grim pandemic milestone as more than 3-million infections have now been confirmed countrywide.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Friday that there were 16,055 new cases recorded in the past day, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 3,004,203 since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March last year.

Gauteng continued to be the epicentre of the new cases, with 11,553 recorded in the past day. But the number of new cases continued to rise in other provinces, with the Western Cape (957 cases) fast approaching the 1,000-mark.

There were more than 500 cases recorded in four other provinces — KwaZulu-Natal (897), the North West (805), Mpumalanga (662) and Limpopo (500).

According to the NICD there were also another 25 Covid-19 related deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to date to 89,944.

The NICD said there were also 279 hospital admissions in the past day, taking the total number of people admitted for Covid-19 treatment to 3,202.

TimesLIVE