While South Africans are celebrating Heritage Day with Master KG’s song of hope Jerusalem, 77 families are mourning the deaths of their loved ones who were killed by COVID-19.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said 77 patients were killed by this virulent disease in the past 24 hours, shooting the mortality rate from 16 206 to 16 283.
Of the 77 deaths, 58 were recorded in Gauteng, seven in KwaZulu-Natal, eight in the Eastern Cape, and four in the Western Cape.
Mkhize also said the COVID-19 infections have spiked from 665 188 to 667049 after 1 861 people contracted the disease in the past 24 hours.
The 1 861 were recorded from 18 405 tests conducted, with 9 593 of those conducted in the private health centres while 8 812 were done in public health facilities.
This has brought the total number of tests conducted so far to 4 102 162, with 2 326 163 of those done in the private institutions and 1 77 999 in the public institutions.
Of the 66 7049 infected, 595 916 have recovered, which translates to a recovery rate of 89.3 percent.
