The number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa rose by 648 in the last 24 hours, taking the country's total caseload to 2,912,145.

The figures were published on Sunday evening by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service.

The agency also noted that in the same period, 25 fatalities were recorded, taking the country's total number of virus-related deaths to 88,317.

South Africa remains to be the hardest-hit country by the pandemic in Africa, accounting for 34.73 percent of the continent's caseload and 41.28 percent of its deaths.

Gauteng has registered the highest tally of infections of all South Africa provinces, with its 917,759 cases accounting for 31.5 percent of the country's caseload.

Two more provinces have recorded more than half a million COVID-19 infections; KwaZulu-Natal (513,689) and Western Cape (511,803).

The country is banking on a nationwide vaccination exercise to contain further spread of the virus. This drive is aided by various government-imposed containment measures.