South Africa records 199 COVID deaths, 6,787 cases

JOHANNESBURG

South Africa on Monday recorded 199 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in a 24-hour period, taking the total number of fatalities to 75,012, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

The NICD said 6,787 new infections had also been identified, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases in the country to 2,540,222.

Most of the new cases were from the tourism province of Western Cape, accounting for 29%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 21% and Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, accounting for 15% of cases.

South Africa, which has a population of over 60 million, has administered 8.6 million doses to its people, and out of these, 3.5 million are fully vaccinated.

The country, which has the highest COVID-19 burden on the continent, has conducted over 15 million COVID tests in both public and private sectors since the virus was first detected in March last year.