South Africa reported the highest death toll in a single day, with 572 people dying of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Of the additional deaths, 400 were recorded in the Eastern Cape, 114 from Gauteng, 43 from the Free State, 35 from the Western Cape and 18 from KwaZulu-Natal.
This has pushed the fatality rate to 5 940 since the pandemic.
Meanwhile, there are now 394 948 infections after 13 150 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
The worst-hit provinces include Gauteng with 144 582 cases followed by the Western Cape with 87 847, Eastern Cape 67 818 and KwaZulu-Natal 50 521.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize was in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday where he chastened the Eastern Cape for under-reporting deaths
He instructed the MEC of Health in the Province Sindiswa Gomba to report deaths on a daily basis as and when it is received.
While he said he understood that there were challenges, he urged the provincial health department not to go by a day without accounting for COVID-19 deaths as it breeds misrepresentation.
“It does give us a bit of distortion. You suddenly do not have deaths for one day then afterwards you have 400 deaths. It becomes the problem in terms of understanding the distribution,” he stressed.
-SAGOVNEWS
