CAPE TOWN, June 23 (Xinhua) -- South Africa has set a daily record for COVID-19 deaths with 111 reported over the past 24 hours, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday.
With the new deaths, the national death toll passed the 2,000 mark to reach 2,102, Mkhize said in his daily update.
The cumulative number of confirmed cases reached 106,108, up by 4,518 from Monday, he said.
The minister also gave an update on the country's response to the pandemic.
Mass community testing was gaining momentum, with 29,596 having been conducted in the past 24 hours, Mkhize said.
As of Tuesday, more than 4,000 people are in hospital for COVID-19 and are receiving different levels of treatment, the minister said.
The country has successfully increased its COVID-19 bed capacity to above 27,000, identified over 400 quarantine sites with a capacity of just under 38,000 beds across the country, according to Mkhize.
"We currently have a capacity of 7,134 ventilators of which 5,401 are currently available in both public and private sectors combined; 1,000 have been pledged to be donated and 733 have been procured," Mkhize said.
The minister also called for "a concerted effort by all South Africans to adopt the necessary behavior change that will keep us all safe and ensure our morbidity and mortality rates remain low."
"We have to rely on social behavioral change to beat this virus," he added. Enditem
