SA records fewer than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases for first time in 82 days

South Africa on Monday recorded fewer than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases in a 24-hour period for the first time since June 3.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Monday revealed that there were 1,677 new infections recorded since Sunday night.

This is the first time in 82 days that SA has recorded fewer than 2,000 cases. On June 3, the country recorded 1,713 cases. It then took 51 days to reach its highest number of daily cases, peaking at 13,944 on July 24.

Monday's is also the smallest daily increase since June 2 when 1,455 new cases were recorded.

There have now been 611,450 total infections across the country, Mkhize said.

Of the confirmed infections to date, 206,525 are in Gauteng, 110,102 in KwaZulu-Natal, 104,667 in the Western Cape and 85,240 in the Eastern Cape.

Earlier on Monday, Mkhize said during a webinar, that SA had recorded 100 new Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours. He said the total number of deaths recorded across SA had climbed to 13,159.

Of the new deaths, 14 were recorded in KZN, 36 in Mpumalanga, 12 in Gauteng, eight in Limpopo, 11 in the Eastern Cape and 19 in the Western Cape.

"Our recoveries now stand at 516,494, which translates to a recovery rate of 84%," said Mkhize.

The minister said the number of tests being done was declining.

"The people who are presenting for tests have declined," he said.

The figures are based on 3,564,065 tests, of which 10,640 were in the most recent 24-hour cycle.

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