SA recorded 655 new Covid-19 cases and 34 deaths in the past 24 hours, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Monday.

This means there have now been 1,559,113 cases in total and 53,356 fatalities recorded since the outbreak of the coronavirus in SA in March last year.

The new infections came from 16,042 tests, at a positivity rate of 4.08%.

Of the new deaths, 14 were in the Eastern Cape, nine in the Western Cape, six in Mpumalanga, three in the Free State and one in KwaZulu-Natal. There were no deaths recorded in Limpopo, the North West or the Northern Cape.

To date, 1,484,356 recoveries have been recorded at a recovery rate of 95%.

Mkhize also reported that 289,787 health workers had been vaccinated as of 6.30pm on Monday.

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