SA passes 30,000 confirmed Covid-19 deaths, with 434 in just one day

SA passed another grim Covid-19 milestone on Monday night as the death toll from the respiratory illness passed 30,000.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said in a statement that 434 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the national death toll to 30,011.

Of the newly recorded deaths, 157 were in the Western Cape, 133 were in the Eastern Cape, 71 in KwaZulu-Natal, 36 in Gauteng, 25 in the North West, seven in Limpopo and two in the Free State.

Mkhize said that SA recorded 12,601 new cases of the illness, meaning that there have now been 1,113,349 confirmed cases of Covid-19 identified across SA. The new cases came from 37,419 tests — a positivity rate of 33.7%.

KZN is the country's epicentre, with 66,900 active cases. The Western Cape is next, with 44,343 active cases. Gauteng has 31,188 active cases.

So far, 911,573 recoveries have been recorded, at a recovery rate of 81.9%.

TimesLIVE