Some 22,391 people tested positive for Covid-19 in South Africa on Thursday as the country continued to register an unprecedented spike in infections from the virus.
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Friday that country’s industrial hub, Gauteng province, continued to lead the charge in new Covid-19 cases, with 11,791 people having tested positive on Thursday.
The province was followed by 2,194 cases in the Western Cape, some 1,308 cases in North West, 1008 in Free State and 1,055 in Limpopo, it said.
The other four provinces recorded less than 1,000 new infections each.
Thursday’s new cases raised the cumulative total number of confirmed infections since March 2020 to 3,093,452, NICD said.
Meanwhile, 70 percent of those who have been admitted to hospitals are the unvaccinated, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday.
According to the minister, while scientists were still conducting more studies on whether existing vaccines work against the Omicron variant, early signs indicated that the drugs are still effective.
“So, as things stand, the vaccines are showing to be still very strong in protecting against severe diseases as it did with previous variants,” Phaahla told journalists.
NM/jn/APA