South Africa Records 572 COVID-19 Deaths In One Day

dailyxtr July 23, 2020

An undertaker from the AVBOB funeral house in Soweto, carries into a cold storage room the remains of a COVID-19 coronavirus patient on July 21, 2020. MARCO LONGARI / AFP

South Africa on Wednesday announced a record 24-hour increase of 572 coronavirus deaths, bringing its total number of fatalities to 5,940.

The country is the worst-affected in Africa and among the top five in the world in terms of confirmed cases, with 394,948 infections reported to date.

“Regrettably we report 572 new COVID-19 related deaths. This brings the cumulative number of deaths to 5,940,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a daily statement.

Almost half the total number of deaths have been reported in the Western Cape province, while the majority of positive cases are in Gauteng — South Africa’s financial hub and epicentre of the outbreak.

The mortality rate has remained low, however, at around 1.5 percent on Wednesday.

Almost 60 percent of the country’s COVID-19 patients have recovered from the virus.

AFP