The number of new Covid-19 cases is on the rise in all provinces, the health ministry said on Tuesday night.

In the past 24 hours, 3,084 new infections were recorded at a positivity rate of 11%, taking the cumulative number of cases to date to 1,640,932.

“There are 41,005 active cases in the country, reflecting a 0.69% increase in active cases over the past 24 hours. The Northern Cape has the most active cases per 100,000 population at 622.1, followed by Free State at 232.7, North West at 118.7, Gauteng at 74.0 and the Western Cape at 43.9 active cases per 100,000 population.

“Nationally, there has been a 17% increase in new cases compared to seven days prior. All provinces continue to show increases in new cases compared to seven days prior.

“As of May 25 2021, the highest case incidence per 100,000 population over the past seven  days was reported in the Northern Cape at 226.9, followed by Free State at 101.2, Gauteng at 58.4, North West at 52.7, Mpumalanga at 24.4, and the Western Cape at 22.8 new cases per 100,000 population,” said health minister Zweli Mkhize.

The minister also announced that 102 new Covid-19 deaths had been confirmed in the past 24 hours. Of these, 26 deaths “occurred in the past 48 hours”. There have been 55,976 cumulative deaths recorded across SA since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March last year.

Regarding vaccinations, Mkhize said 47,046 people received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine as of midnight on May 24, meaning there had now been 221,136 Pfizer jabs administered across SA. Combining this with the 479,768 Johnson & Johnson vaccinations administered under the Sisonke programme, it means 700,904 people have now received at least one dose under the vaccine rollout.

As of midnight on May 24, there were 2,838,526 people registered on the vaccine database.

TimesLIVE