As the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in SA climbed towards the 1.5 million mark, health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday night another relatively low number of new infections were reported in the past 24 hours. 

To date, 1,494,119 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed across SA. Of these, 1,210 were recorded in the past 24 hours.

The new infections come from 24,486 tests, at a positivity rate of 4.94%. This is significantly lower than the 10% to 12% positivity rate Mkhize has previously cited as being of concern.

Mkhize also reported on Tuesday that 219 new deaths related to Covid-19 had been recorded in the past 24 hours. Of these, 56 were in Gauteng, 43 in KwaZulu-Natal, 38  in the Western Cape, 29  in Limpopo, 20  in the Eastern Cape, 14 in the Northern Cape, 10   in Mpumalanga and nine in the Free State.

This means 48,313 deaths related to Covid-19 have been reported since the outbreak of the respiratory illness nearly a year ago.

To date, 1,396,951 recoveries have been recorded at a recovery rate of 93.5%.

TimesLIVE

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