South Africa registered 24 785 new COVID-19 cases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Thursday.
According to the NICD, Gauteng continues to record the highest number of infections after 6 744 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. It is followed by 5 821 cases in KwaZulu-Natal, 4 599 in the Western Cape and 2 248 in the Eastern Cape.
This means the country now has a tally of 3 255 816 confirmed cases since the outbreak.
Meanwhile, the death toll linked to COVID-19 has now risen to 90 262 after 36 more people lost their lives to the virus.
In addition, the public health institute said there are 7 614 people who are currently receiving hospital treatment, with 347 being admitted in the past 24 hours.
The Department of Health announced that it has administered 12 558 jabs in the last 24 hours, 3 543 of which were given to children.
This pushes the total number of distributed doses to 27 422 495, while 15 290 432 or 38.1% adults are fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, a total of 814 501 vaccine doses have been given to children between the ages of 12 and 17.
The department reported that it has already administered 6 845 booster shots to immunocompromised people.
Globally, as of 16 December 2021, there have been 271 376 643 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5 324 969 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.