SA recorded 11,767 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Thursday.

This was lower than the 13,246 reported on Wednesday, but still “higher than the average number of new cases per day over the seven preceding days”.

The positivity rate of 22.6% — the number of positive results against the number of tests undergone in the same period — was also higher than Wednesday.

There were also 100 new Covid-19 related deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, the NICD said in its latest statistical release.

The latest cases and fatalities mean that there are now 1,786,079 total cases and 58,323 deaths recorded across the country to date.

“The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (64%), followed by Western Cape (11%). North West accounted for 6%; Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga each accounted for 4% respectively; Eastern Cape & Northern Cape each accounted for 3% respectively; and Limpopo accounted for 2% of today’s cases,” the NICD said.

This means, in raw numbers, Gauteng accounted for 7,502 cases in the past 24 hours and the Western Cape 1,242.

There were also 1,974 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, meaning that there are now 8,832 people being treated in SA's hospital for Covid-19.

TimesLIVE