South Africa has reported 4 227 new COVID-19 cases bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 935 761.

This increase represents a 15.7% positivity rate.

In a statement on Tuesday, 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).

“Today, the NDoH reports 50 deaths, and of these, 14 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 101 002 to date,” the NICD said.

The majority of new cases are from Gauteng (31%) followed by Western Cape (22%).

KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 16%; Eastern Cape accounted for 11%; Free State accounted for 6%; Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West each accounted for 4% respectively; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of the cases.

“The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (15.7%), and is higher than yesterday (13.7%). The seven-day average is (19.1%) today, and is lower than yesterday (19.8%). The seven- day moving average daily number of cases has decreased,” the NICD said.

There has been an increase of 139 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

South Africa has to date conducted 25 108 084 COVID-19 tests in both public and private sectors.

Source: South African Government News Agency