The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says it is the highest number of daily cases and positivity rate recorded since January 2021.

The new cases represent a 21.7% positivity rate, the rate of people who tested positive on Wednesday.

Gauteng recorded 7 859 positive cases – the highest daily cases in the province since the pandemic was first detected in March 2020.

The Institute says four provinces are officially in the third wave.

“The Northern Cape, Free State, North West and Gauteng Provinces are officially in a third wave, with the remaining five provinces seeing sustained increases in the number of cases. The majority of cases reported today are once again from Gauteng (59.3%),” reads the statement.

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North West has recorded 917 new cases, the Northern Cape 426 and Free State 617.

The total number of laboratory-confirmed cases increased to 1,774,312.

A further 136 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 58,223.

The institute says an increase of 940 hospital admissions and 77 in-hospital deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.

“Citizens should remain vigilant in following Covid-19 preventative measures by wearing a mask that covers both the nose and mouth, practicing healthy hand hygiene (through washing and/or sanitising), maintaining physical distancing of at least 1.5m and limiting social interactions as much as possible,” urges the Institute.