South Africa has recorded 1 679 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,717,067.

In a statement on Wednesday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said that this increase represents a 6.4% positivity rate, which is higher than Tuesday’s 6 %.

Meanwhile, 44 deaths have been reported.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 44 deaths and of these, six occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,020 to date,” the NICD said.

The majority of new cases are from Gauteng (41%), followed by the Western Cape (22%).

Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 21%; Eastern Cape accounted for 5%; Free State, Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 3% respectively; Limpopo accounted for 2%; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of Wednesday’s new cases.

To date, 23,809,344 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.

The total number of vaccines administered in the last 24 hours stands at 81, 710 taking the overall total to 33, 656, 772.

Source: South African Government News Agency