South Africa logged 139 new COVID-19 related deaths on Tuesday, the most recorded in one day since the widespread Omicron variant outbreak.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this means there are now 91 451 official deaths since the start of the pandemic.
In addition, the institute said there were 8 078 new COVID-19 infections that have been identified since the last reporting cycle, pushing the laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 483 590.
KwaZulu-Natal reported the highest number of new infections after 2 281 tested positive, followed by 1 765 in the Western Cape, 1 549 in Gauteng and 1 061 in the Eastern Cape.
This increase represents a 20.1% positivity rate.
Meanwhile, hospital admissions have increased by 309, pushing the number to 8 857 patients who are currently receiving treatment for COVID-19.
According to the latest data, there are 3 328 246 people who have recuperated from the disease with a recovery rate of 93%.
The information is based on the 21 344 293 tests of which 40 105 were conducted in the last 24 hours.
Globally, as of 4 January 2022, there have been 290 959 019 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 5 446 753 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.
Source: South African Government News Agency