South Africa recorded 21,157 new COVID-19 cases from a sample size of 72,689 test conducted in the last 24 hours, bringing the country's total number of infections to 3,374,262.

The figures were published by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, which also reported 75 new deaths, bringing the country's total number of virus-related fatalities to 90,662.

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

The country's number of reported infections are more than the combined tally recorded by the next seven African countries with the highest cases.

The government has embarked on a nationwide vaccination exercise in efforts to protect the public from the virus.

So far, more than 27.7 million doses of vaccine have been administered across the country.