Amid international controversy over the new mutant virus, South Africa recorded 2,858 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Monday.
This led President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce on Sunday that South Africa was heading towards a forth wave of the virus starting in early December.
The new cases were 62 fewer than those recorded on Saturday, according to NICD figures.
The latest statistics took South Africa’s tally to 2,961,406 infections since the first case was reported in the country in March 2020.
The industrialised province of Gauteng remained the hardest-hit region after 2,308 cases were confirmed on Sunday, followed by 148 cases in the Western Cape province, 102 in KwaZulu-Natal, 91 in North West, 89 in Mpumalanga, 51 in Limpopo, 25 in Free State, 23 in Northern Cape and 21 in Eastern Cape.
The number of Covid-19 patients receiving treatment in hospital rose by 24 on Sunday to total 2,232, NICD said.
South Africa’s death toll from Covid-19 stood at 89,797 after six people succumbed to the disease on Sunday, the agency said.
The country has been in the news in recent days after local scientists discovered a new Covid-19 variant that is believed to mutate faster that previous variants.
The discovery of the variant has triggered a travel ban against people travelling from South Africa and seven other southern African countries.
According to the Ministry of Health, the country has so far vaccinated 25,288,417 people since the beginning of the public vaccination campaign in May.
NM/jn/APA