A third of all new Covid-19 cases recorded in SA in the past 24 hours were identified in KwaZulu-Natal.

This is according to latest data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

This comes as the country stands on the threshold of another Covid-19 vaccine milestone. Barring a major disruption to the rollout, on Tuesday the 5-millionth South African will be fully vaccinated, either with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson jab or their second shot of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.

As of 5pm on Monday, there were 4,983,911 people fully vaccinated across SA — 2,433,477 of them with J&J and 2,550,434 having received their second Pfizer shot.

On Monday, there were 247,293 vaccines administered by 5pm. Of these, 55,444 were J&J shots and 191,849 were Pfizer (of which 85,580 were the second dose).

According to the NICD figures, there were 7,632 new Covid-19 cases identified in SA in the past 24 hours, along with 163 Covid-19 related deaths. This means that there have been 2,698,605 total confirmed infections and 79,584 fatalities recorded across the country since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March last year.

The NICD said that there were 2,542 cases (33% of the daily total) recorded in KwaZulu-Natal. This was followed by Western Cape (21%, or 1,634 cases) and the Eastern Cape (17%, or 1,286 cases). Gauteng was the other province to record more than 500 infections in the past 24 hours, with 513 cases identified.

There was also 345 new hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, meaning that 13,537 people are being treated in hospitals for Covid-19 related illnesses across SA.

TimesLIVE