These were the biggest single-day increases reported since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
Of the deaths, there were nine from the Western Cape, three each in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, and two from KwaZulu-Natal.
Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize made the figures available in a statement on Friday night. They were based on 15,599 tests.
The deaths did not all take place in the last 24 hours, with the minister stating that there had “been a delay in reporting some of these deaths due to the stringent verification processes we had undertaken”.
“As of May 7 we had 435 patients in hospital, of which 45 were in high care, 77 were in ICU and, of those, 40 were being ventilated. Our hospitalisation rate remains at 5% of all Covid-19 diagnosed patients,” the statement said.
No update was provided to the numbers of recoveries announced on Wednesday.
The provincial breakdown of cases on Friday was provided as:
- Western Cape — 4,497;
- Gauteng — 1,851;
- KwaZulu-Natal — 1, 253;
- Eastern Cape — 989;
- Free State — 133;
- Mpumalanga — 60;
- Limpopo — 43;
- North West — 42; and
- Northern Cape — 27.
The number of deaths and recoveries were recorded as:
- Western Cape — 99 deaths, 1,122 recoveries;
- KwaZulu-Natal — 42 deaths, 420 recoveries;
- Eastern Cape — 21 deaths, 388 recoveries;
- Gauteng — 18 deaths, 1,036 recoveries;
- Free State — 6 deaths, 102 recoveries;
- Limpopo — 3 deaths, 27 recoveries;
- Mpumalanga — 0 deaths, 22 recoveries;
- North West — 0 deaths, 20 recoveries; and
- Northern Cape — 0 deaths, 16 recoveries.
BY MATTHEW SAVIDES
