South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Thursday the country has surpassed 80,000 deaths after 516 people succumbed to the respiratory disease on Wednesday.
According to the NICD, the death toll has reached 80,469 nationwide since the first patient fell to the pandemic in March 2020 in the country.
Some 13,251 more people were confirmed to have contracted the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the figure to 2,722,202 cases, the NICD said.
According to the public health institute, some 3,627 people tested positive in KwaZulu-Natal province, followed by Western Cape, which accounted for 3,338 infections, some 1,783 cases in the Eastern Cape, and 1,317 cases in Gauteng province.
An increase of 606 hospital admissions was recorded nationwide as well, the NICD said.
Meanwhile, some 268,712 Covid-19 doses were injected into the arms of South Africans on Wednesday, pushing the tally to 11,363,810 vaccinations.
NM/jn/APA