SA recorded 5,668 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours — the third day in a row that the 5,000-mark has been breached.

This after 5,360 new daily infections were announced on Thursday and 5,782 on Wednesday. The majority of the new infections over the three-day period have been in Gauteng.

There have now been 1,686,041 total Covid-19 cases recorded across SA since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March last year.

The new cases announced on Friday came from 43,137 tests, at a positivity rate of 13.13%. cases identified.

In releasing the figures, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize also reported that there were 67 Covid-19 related deaths recorded in the past 24 hours. Of these, 24 were in Gauteng, 23 in the Free State, eight in the Western Cape, five in KwaZulu-Natal, four in the Eastern Cape and three in the Northern Cape.

There were no deaths recorded in Limpopo, Mpumalanga or the North West in the past 24 hours, Mkhize said.

There have been 56,832 Covid-19 related fatalities recorded since the outbreak.

TimesLIVE