South Africa reached a grim milestone on Wednesday by reporting the highest single-day deaths and new cases as it wrestles an aggressive new wave of Covid-19.
This is after the country detected a new, faster-spreading, variant of the virus that is believed to be driving the surge in infections.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced that 844 deaths and 21,832 new cases were recorded, with most casualties in the Eastern Cape province.
The previous record for single-day deaths was 572 in July.
The country has so far recorded 31,368 deaths since the pandemic hit out of a total of more than 1.1 million confirmed cases.
