With 840 people succumbing to the coronavirus pandemic in the past 24 hours, South Africa’s mutant virus has recorded its deadliest day yet as it continues to istill fear nationwide, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday.
The past 24 hours were not only the deadliest since the outbreak of the Covid-19 in the country in March 2020, but had also set new, grim records in terms of both fatalities and new cases, Mkhize said.
Apart from the day’s record number of deaths, the country also saw a record 21,832 infections in the past 24 hours, he said.
He added that of the 840 deaths nationwide, some 452 lives were lost in the Eastern Cape Province alone as a result of “data reconciliation.”
The previous high for single-day deaths was 572 recorded on 22 July, and the previous daily high for cases was the 18,000 infections recorded last week on 31 December, the minister said.
This new development means that a total of 31,368 Covid-19 related deaths have been recorded and 1,149,591 total infections have been confirmed since the outbreak of the disease in the country.
Due to the fast-transmissible variant, Mkhize said the country needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the population to break the cycle of transmission.
His government has approached medical aid schemes and the business sector for assistance to obtain funding for the rollout of the April Covid-19 vaccination programme, the minister said.
South Africa, which was involved in the testing of the Oxford-vaccine development programme, has yet to secure a vaccine as the country experienced a second wave of the coronavirus, he noted.
NM/jn/APA