SA recorded nearly 650 new Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours, as the country fast approached the 40,000 fatalities mark.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said that 647 new fatalities had been recorded, taking the death toll from the pandemic to 39,501.

Of the new deaths, 154 were in KwaZulu-Natal, 139 were in the Eastern Cape, 137 were in the Western Cape, 93 were in Gauteng, 55 were in the North West, 27 were in Limpopo, 17 were in Mpumalanga and eight in the Northern Cape.

Mkhize also reported that 11,381 new Covid-19 cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours. This means that 1,380,807 had now been confirmed countrywide since the outbreak of the coronavirus in SA in March last year.

The new infections come from 58,540 tests, at a positivity rate of 19.44%. This comes after a positivity rate of 20.45% on Wednesday, 20.96% on Tuesday and 22.6% on Monday.

To date, 1,183,443 recoveries have been recorded, at a recovery rate of 85.7%.

TimesLIVE