SA had its biggest ever single-day increase in Covid-19 cases, with the health ministry reporting on Wednesday that 8,124 new infections were recorded in the past 24 hours.

The means there are now 159,333 cases across SA. The majority of the new cases were in Gauteng.

Also on Wednesday, KwaZulu-Natal became the fourth province - after the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng - to pass the 10,000 mark for confirmed infections. 

The ministry reported an additional 92 Covid-19 related deaths:

• 37 from the Western Cape;
• 28 from Gauteng;
• 17 from the Eastern Cape; and
• 10 from KwaZulu-Natal.

There have now been 2,749 Covid-19 related deaths recorded.

The mortality rate is at 1.7%, lower than the global average.

According to the ministry, 76,025 people have recovered from the illness - a recovery rate of 47.7%.

The data is based on 1,666,939 total tests, of which 36,931 were in the last 24-hour reporting cycle.

-TimesLIVE