South Africa reports 2,063 new COVID-19 cases

ABUJA, Nigeria

South Africa registered 2,063 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of infections to more than 635,000, its health ministry said Friday.

It said 115 more people died from the virus, taking that number to 14,678.

Authorities have conducted more than 3.7 million tests to detect the virus while the number of recoveries stand at 557,818.

South Africa is the worst-hit country by the virus on the African continent and has the seventh highest number of cases globally.

The virus has claimed more than 866,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since originating in Wuhan, China in December.

The US, Brazil, India and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries.

More than 26.1 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 17.4 million, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

*Writing by Burak Dag