CAPE TOWN - South Africa recorded 136 new Covid-19 cases and five deaths on Tuesday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.
“Today the institute reports 273 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 926 348.
“This increase represents a 0.9% positivity rate.
“As per the National Department of Health, a further 15 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89 504 to date.
“A total of 18 962 806 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors of which 53.9% come from the private sector and 46.1 come from the public sector,” the NICD said.
The organisation said the majority of new cases recorded on Tuesday are from Gauteng which accounted for 54% of new cases, followed by the Western Cape with 11% of cases. KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 10% of cases while the Free State accounted for 7%.
Mpumalanga accounted for 6%, North West accounted for 4% while the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape accounted for 3% of cases respectively.
Limpopo only accounted for 1% of the recorded new cases for Tuesday.
The NICD said the proportion of positive new/total tested cases for Tuesday is 0.9%, which is the same as recorded on Monday (0.9%).
It said in the past 24 hours, there has been an increase of 35 hospital admissions.
According to the national department of health, a rise in Covid-19 infections is expected in the country around mid-December and early January and this could predict a potential fourth wave.