South Africa reports 2,007 new COVID-19 cases

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG

South Africa registered 2,007 new cases of the novel coronavirus in a 24-hour period, bringing the country’s total number of infections to 644,438, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced Thursday.

Mkhize said 97 more people had succumbed to COVID-19, taking the death toll to 15,265, while a total of 573,003 people had recovered.

The tourism province of Western Cape has recorded the highest number of fatalities at 4,022, followed by Gauteng province, which includes the capital Pretoria and Johannesburg, with 3,881.

Despite having the highest number of COVID-19 infections on the continent and being the eighth most affected country globally, new figures show that cases of COVID-19 have started declining in the country.

The total number of tests conducted so far is nearly 3.9 million, with 20,555 tested in the past 24 hours.