South Africa recorded 13 751 new confirmed Covid-19 infections on Thursday and 523 deaths, bringing the official death toll to 71 431.

According to a statement by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), as of Thursday, the country recorded 2 422 151 laboratory-confirmed cases.

"The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)… reports that 13 751 new Covid-19 cases have been identified in South Africa, representing a 24.6% positivity rate," the statement read.

As of Thursday, Gauteng recorded 855 814 confirmed cases, the Western Cape 393 643 and KwaZulu-Natal 391 331.

"The majority of new cases today (Thursday) are from Western Cape (29%), followed by Gauteng (27%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 14%; Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga each accounted for 7%; Limpopo and North West each accounted for 5%; Free State accounted for 4%; and Northern Cape accounted for 3% of today's new cases," NICD spokesperson Sinenhlanhla Jimoh said.

The Western Cape recorded 3 968 new cases on Thursday, Gauteng 3 655 and KwaZulu-Natal 1 900.

There was an increase of 598 hospital admissions in the last 24-hour cycle. As of Thursday, 15 964 people were in both public and private hospitals for Covid-19.

South Africa has conducted 14 750 901 tests, of which 55 923 were carried out in the last 24-hour cycle.

The recovery rate is 90.6%, which translates to 2 194 762 recoveries.

According to the Department of Health, 7 297 912 vaccine doses have been administered. Of those, 215 066 were administered on Thursday.

To date, 1 376 285 people have been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, while 1 459 654 have been vaccinated with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.