South Africa records 5,000 new COVID-19 cases

JOHANNESBURG

South Africa has reported 4,966 new confirmed cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 92,681, the Health Ministry announced late Saturday.

“Regrettably, we report a further 46 COVID-19-related deaths -- 11 from Eastern Cape, 3 from KwaZulu Natal and 32 from Western Cape provinces. This brings the total deaths to 1,877,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement.

The daily mortality rate is now at 2%, down from 2.2%, and the number of recoveries is 50,326, which translates to a recovery rate of 54.3%.

Despite a shortage of testing kits affecting many countries, South Africa has so far tested nearly 1.3 million people, as 33,174 tests were conducted over the past 24 hours.