South Africa on Thursday reported 319 new COVID-19 cases from a sample size of 33,526 tests conducted over the last 24 hours, taking the country's total caseload to 2,923,054.

The figures were published by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, which also announced 31 new fatalities, taking the country's total number of virus-related deaths to 89,251.

South Africa is the hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.

The country accounts for 34.34 per cent of the continent's caseload and 40.76 per cent of its fatalities.

The data from the NICD showed that Gauteng Province has recorded the highest number of cases, with 919,831 confirmed infections.

Two other provinces have registered more than 500,000 infections: KwaZulu Natal Province (515,780) and Western Cape Province (513,803).

The South African government has rolled out a national vaccination drive in efforts to curb further spread of the virus.

So far, 22,965,123 doses of vaccine have been administered in the country.