SA's Covid-19 death toll closes in on 150, as cases climb to over 7,500

The number of South Africans to die of Covid-19 has climbed to 148, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

Ten deaths were reported in the last 24 hours - seven of them in the Western Cape and one each in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

There were also now 7,572 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in SA - an increase of 357 in the last 24 hours.

The new cases were from 10,523 tests in the last 24 hours, and 268,064 tests have now been done countrywide.

On Monday, the department announced there were 7,220 confirmed cases across SA, with the death toll at 138. There were also a reported 2,746 recoveries on Monday, with this figure not updated in Tuesday night's release.

The provincial breakdown of cases on Tuesday was provided as:

• Western Cape - 3,609;
• Gauteng - 1,697;
• KZN - 1,142;
• Eastern Cape - 838; 
• Free State - 128;
• Mpumalanga - 57;
• Limpopo - 40;
• North West - 35; and
• Northern Cape - 26.

The number of deaths and recoveries were recorded as:

• Western Cape - 71 deaths, 833 recoveries;
• KwaZulu-Natal - 36 deaths, 415 recoveries;
• Eastern Cape - 18 deaths, 341 recoveries;
• Gauteng - 15 deaths, 979 recoveries;
• Free State - 6 deaths, 96 recoveries;
• Limpopo - 2 deaths, 27 recoveries;
• Mpumalanga - 0 deaths, 22 recoveries;
• North West - 0 deaths, 20 recoveries; and
• Northern Cape - 0 deaths, 13 recoveries.