South Africa now has 3 996 441 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 after 657 people tested positive on Wednesday.
Most new cases in the past 24 hours were reported in Gauteng after 52 citizens were confirmed to have contracted the virus, followed by 13 in the Western Cape, eight in the Eastern Cape and seven in KwaZulu-Natal. Meanwhile, the other provinces reported less than five cases each, while the Northern Cape had zero infections.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this brings the positivity rate to 4.8%.
In addition, the National Department of Health reported that 12 people succumbed to COVID-19, of which three occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours.
According to the latest statistics, this means the death toll now stands at 101 859 to date.
The data shows that there has been an increase of 14 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, while the seven-day moving average daily number of cases has gone up slightly.
The information is based on the 25 789 955 tests conducted in the public and private sectors since the outbreak.
Global view
Globally, the number of new weekly cases increased for the fourth consecutive week after a declining trend since the last peak in March 2022.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), during the week of 27 June to 3 July 2022, over 4.6 million cases were reported, a figure similar to that of the previous week.
At the regional level, the number of new weekly cases increased in the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia, European and the Western Pacific regions, while the areas of Africa and the Americas recorded a drop.
Meanwhile, the number of new weekly deaths dropped by 12% compared to the previous week, with over 8 100 fatalities recorded.
At the country level, the WHO reported that the highest numbers of new weekly cases were logged in France (603 074), Germany (555 331), Italy (511 037), the United States (496 049) and Brazil (334 852).
In addition, as of 3 July 2022, over 546 million confirmed global cases and over 6.3 million deaths had been reported.