Of the 381 798 confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa, the number of recoveries currently stands at 208 144, which translates to a recovery rate of 54%, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Tuesday.

With the total number of recoveries crossing the 200 000 mark, the rate of recovery in the country has also seen some improvement, from 52.4% on Sunday. 

However, the recovery rate is still slightly below the global average of 56.6%. 

South Africa now ranks fifth among the world's countries in terms of reported Covid-19 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.

The country has registered 5 368 deaths as of Tuesday.

The US is still way in front, with almost four-million total cases reported and 142 073 deaths, followed by Brazil (2 159 654 cases and 81 487 deaths), India (1 193 078 cases and 28 732 deaths), and Russia (787 846 cases and  12 722 deaths). 

Worldwide, 14 969 649 cases have been reported, with 8 486 041 recoveries and 616 990 deaths.

In South Africa, 2 536 921 Covid-19 tests have been conducted to date, translating into 42 746 tests per one-million citizens. South Africa's population is calculated at 59 348 880 people. 

This means on average, the country has recorded 6 433 cases per one-million people, resulting in 90 deaths out of every one-million people. This is higher than the global average of 1 940 cases and 79.6 fatalities per one-million people.

By Tuesday evening, there were 168 286 active cases in South Africa, of which 539 are considered serious.

Infection surge upon SA

Mkhize recently said the infection surge was upon the country, and Gauteng in particular. He added that the peak would be experienced from July to early September.

South Africa's soaring infections could signal what's to come in other countries across Africa, the World Health Organisation's emergency chief Mike Ryan warned on Monday.

He noted that South Africa's numbers rose by "only" 30% in the past week - in contrast to Kenya's 31% increase, Madagascar's 50%, Zambia’s 57%, and Namibia’s 69%, Al Jazeera reported. 

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the following simple definition of "recovered" should be used: "A person with probable/confirmed Covid-19 [who] is known to be alive and 14 days have elapsed since diagnosis (for asymptomatic), onset of symptoms (for mild cases) or clinical stability/supplementary oxygen stopped (for moderate to severe cases in hospital)."