Premier Sihle Zikalala says cases, driven by the new Omicron variant, rose rapidly over the past few days. 

The province's coronavirus positivity rate has jumped to 12.7%. 

"In the past three weeks our province have observed an incline in the rate of infections on a daily basis. A number of daily cases that have been registered in the past seven days has been rising at an alarming rate. In fact it's twice the number received two weeks ago."

Zikakala held a press briefing on Sunday on the province's response to the pandemic and the country's readiness to host Africa's biggest AIDS conference. 

The International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa gets underway at the ICC on Monday. 

In addition to the 750 people participating in person, 3 000 will attend Icasa virtually. 

Zikalala says the conference puts KZN's response to HIV/AIDS and STI treatments back on the agenda. 

"As a province largely affected by HIV and AIDS this conference will evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the HIV/AIDS response while sharing the lesson learned in overcoming barriers in maintaining community in care for people living in the risk of HIV infection."