South Africa set a new record for Covid-19 daily infections after more than 19,800 cases were registered on Wednesday, according to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).
The NICD said the 19,842 infections on Wednesday pushed the country’s cumulative total confirmed cases to 3,071,064 since the outbreak of the disease in the country in March 2020.
The increase showed that Gauteng continued to record the highest daily infections among the country’s nine provinces. Gauteng registered 11,703 cases on Wednesday.
KwaZulu-Natal was a distant second, with 1,989 cases, followed by Western Cape (1,899) and Mpumalanga (1,103).
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation said the Omicron variant has so far been reported in 57 countries and the number is expected to continue rising.
WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus called on countries to scale up surveillance, testing and sequencing – and share samples with the international community.
He called on countries to “avoid ineffective and discriminatory travel bans.”
“I am pleased that France and Switzerland have lifted their travel bans on southern African countries. I urge other countries to follow their lead,” Tedros said.
NM/jn/APA