South Africa on Tuesday recorded 343 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 993 004.

This increase represents a 3.3% positivity rate, said the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

The National Department of Health reported five deaths, and of these, three occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 101 745 .

To date, 25 708 720 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

The cumulative number of recoveries now stands at 3 879 002, with a recovery rate of 97.1%.

A breakdown of the new cases indicates that the majority were from Gauteng (39%), followed by the Western Cape (20%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 13% of the new cases; Eastern Cape 9%; Mpumalanga and North West 5% each; Free State 4%; Northern Cape and Limpopo 2% each.

Over the last 24-hour reporting cycle, there was an increase of 23 hospital admissions.

Source: South African Government News Agency