South Africa has reported 2 952 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 894 745.

This increase represents a 16.8% positivity rate.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said there might be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH).

“The NDoH has reported 16 deaths and of these, eight occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100 771 to date,” the NICD said on Monday.

The majority of new cases are from Gauteng (47%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (18%).

The Western Cape accounted for 14% of the new cases; Free State 7%; Eastern Cape and North West 4% each; Northern Cape 3%; Mpumalanga 2%, and Limpopo 1%.

“The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (16.8%), and is lower than yesterday (20.3%). The seven-day average is (23.7%) today, and is lower than yesterday (24.0%). The seven-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased,” the NICD said.

There has been an increase of 76 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

South Africa has to date conducted 24 903 051 COVID-19 tests in both the public and private sectors.

Source: South African Government News Agency