SA recorded 1,422 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday.

In the same period, 58 Covid-19 related deaths were recorded.

This means that 1,548,157 total infections and 52,846 deaths have been confirmed across SA to date.

The new infections came from 34,513 tests at a positivity rate of 4.12%.

Of the newly recorded deaths, 23 occurred in KwaZulu-Natal with the same number in  Gauteng, nine were in the Western Cape, two were in the Northern Cape and one was in the Free State. There were no Covid-19 deaths recorded in Limpopo, Mpumalanga or the North West.

Mkhize said that the recovery rate remained at 95%, with 1,474,319 total recoveries recorded to date.

He added that the number of health workers vaccinated by 6.30pm on Wednesday was 263,878.

TimesLIVE