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South Africa reports 16,366 new COVID-19 cases
CGTN
FILE PHOTO: Residents in an observation area following their COVID-19 vaccine, outside a pop-up vaccination bus in Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. /Getty Images

FILE PHOTO: Residents in an observation area following their COVID-19 vaccine, outside a pop-up vaccination bus in Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. /Getty Images

South Africa on Saturday reported 16,366 new COVID-19 cases from 68,703 tests conducted over the past 24 hours, bringing the country's total number of infections to 3,020,569.

The figures were published by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, which also noted that 21 new COVID-19 related deaths were in the same period, bringing total fatalities to 89,965 to date.

South Africa is the hardest-hit country by the pandemic in Africa, accounting for 34.80 per cent of the continent's infections and 40.22 per cent of its fatalities.

Gauteng Province has been most affected, having registered a total of 984,479 infections.

Two more provinces have recorded more than half a million cases; Western Cape (521,771) and KwaZulu-Natal (521,599).

South Africa is currently on high alert following the detection of the new Omicron strain of the virus.

Seven of the country's nine provinces have already recorded cases of the new variant.

The government is currently undertaking a nationwide vaccination exercise in efforts to contain further spread of the virus.

So far, some 26,263,590 doses of vaccine have been administered.

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