South Africa on Tuesday recorded 8 436 new COVID-19 cases, with a 17.8% positivity rate. 

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 1 761 066 since the outbreak. 

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said a total of 12 270 842 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors, with 47 394 tests conducted since the last report. 

The majority of new cases were recorded in Gauteng (64%), followed by the Western Cape (7%), North West (6%), Free State (6%) and KwaZulu-Natal (5%). 

“An increase of 1 415 hospital admissions and 157 in-hospital deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours,” the NICD said.

Source: South African Government News Agency