South Africa has lost 151 people to the coronavirus pandemic in the 24 hours that ended on Friday night, APA learnt here on Saturday.
According to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, at least 72 of the fatalities were recorded in the Free State province, the current centre of the pandemic.
Mkhize said the death toll came from 3,332 new Covid-19 cases recorded across the country in the 24 hours that ended Friday night.
The new cases came from 34,903 tests, with a positivity rate of 9.54%, he added.
Mkhize also noted that 44,876 people have received the first shot of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine in the past 24 hours whose operations started on Monday.
The newly vaccinated now total 161,717 people taking their first Pfizer shots under phase two of the country’s rollout plan.
With 1,628,335 confirmed Covid-19 cases recorded since the coronavirus outbreak in March last year, South Africa has lost 55,719 people to the disease, the minister said.
The recovery rate from the disease is at 94.2 percent, he said.
NM/jn/APA