South Africa has lost 90 people to the coronavirus pandemic in the past 24 hours as fears of a third wave surge continues to threaten the country following disclosures that both Indian and European variants have been identified in the country, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday.
The 90 people who succumbed to the virus have brought the death toll to 54,825 to date since the disease broke out in the country in March 2020, the minister said.
Some 33 fatalities occurred in the North West province, 19 from the Western Cape province, 14 from the Eastern Cape province, 13 from the Northern Cape province, six from Mpumalanga and five from Gauteng province, he added.
During the period under discussion, Mkhize said the country conducted 18,311 Covid-19 tests which revealed 1,129 new cases — representing a 6.2% positivity rate.
He said the country’s recovery rate remained steady at 95% after 1,517,350 patients recovered from Covid-19, while it was home to 25,549 active cases.
Meanwhile, Mkhize reported that the number of vaccinated health care workers stood at 395,230 from the 1.5 million targeted by the current nationwide vaccination campaign which kicked off in February.
According to the World Health Organisation, there are 157,973,438 confirmed global cases of Covid-19, including 3,288,455 deaths, while 1,206,243,409 vaccine doses have been administered as of 10 May 2021.
NM/jn/APA