SA records more than 20,000 new Covid-19 cases, 35 deaths in 24 hours

Of the new cases, Gauteng recorded the highest number (5,850), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (5,134) and the Western Cape (3,655)

17 December 2021 - 20:18 By TimesLIVE

Of the new cases, Gauteng recorded the highest number (5,850), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (5,134) and the Western Cape (3,655). Stock photo.
Image: 123RF/perig76

There were 20,713 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Friday.

This means that there have been 3,276,529 confirmed cases since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in SA in March 2020.

The NICD also reported on Friday that there were, according to health department data, 35 confirmed Covid-19 related deaths in the past day — taking the total number of fatalities to 90,297 to date.

Of the new cases, the NICD said, Gauteng recorded the highest number (5,850), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (5,134) and the Western Cape (3,655). Only the North West (893), Limpopo (687) and the Northern Cape (509) recorded fewer than 1,000 new infections in the past 24 hours.

Data also showed that there were 429 new hospitalisations in the past day, meaning that there are now 7,932 admitted across SA for Covid-19 complications.

TimesLIVE