SA's Covid-19 death toll had climbed to 1,354 with a mortality rate of 2.2%, health minister Zweli Mkhize said in an update on Friday evening.

“Regrettably, we report a further 70 Covid-19 related deaths: 39 from Western Cape, 30 from the Eastern Cape and 1 from Limpopo,” he said in a statement.

The cumulative number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in SA on Friday was 61,927.

The total number of tests conducted has increased to 1,060,425 of which 32,026 were done in the past 24 hours.

Recoveries to date are 35,008 which translates into a recovery rate of 56.5%.

Mkhize, wrapping up a two-day visit to the Eastern Cape on Friday, said: “With the loosening of the lockdown, the numbers have started to increase. A lot more responsibility has to be taken by each and every one of us as individual South Africans.”

SowetanLIVE sister publication TimesLIVE reported that people with diabetes were more likely to die from Covid-19 than any other high-risk group while those with HIV appear to be at less risk — according to the latest Covid-19 mortality data from the Western Cape.

The provincial health department said that, based on current data, it estimated that out of every 100 people within the public health care sector who died from Covid-19, 52 had diabetes, followed by 19 with hypertension and 12 with HIV.