The Eastern Cape accounted for 1,217 of the 2,302 Covid-19 infections confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours.

The Western Cape accounted for 720 of the new infections, meaning that the neighbouring provinces combined for 1,991 (just under 86.5%) of all new infections.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Monday announced that the new cases took the country to 790,004 cases since the outbreak started. At current growth rates, the country is likely to surpass the 800,000 mark before the weekend.

Mkhize said the Eastern Cape accounted for 52.8% of all new infections since the release of Sunday's stats, and the province also accounted for more than half of the Covid-19 released deaths recorded in the same period.

Since Sunday, 58 deaths have been confirmed. Of these, 32 were in the Eastern Cape (55%), 15 were in the Western Cape, five in the Free State and three each in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

“This brings the total deaths to 21,535 deaths,” Mkhize said.

Testing details were, again, not provided.

TimesLIVE