South Africa’s acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said on Friday that despite Wednesday’s spike in new Covid-19 infections, the number of new cases has been on a downward trend, however, she did raise concern at the rise in new infections in the Western Cape.

On Wednesday, the country recorded more than 17 000 cases.

In the last 24 hours the country recorded 13 750 new Covid-19 cases, of which the Western Cape accounts for 29% followed by Gauteng with 27%.

The Western Cape has now surpassed Gauteng in the number of new cases in the last 24 hours. Gauteng has been the epicentre of the third wave in the country.

On Monday the country hit 70 000 in Covid-19 deaths. Kubayi warned that for as long as the number of infections continue to rise, the death toll will continue to increase.

She warned that although the country had reached and passed the peak of the third wave, provinces such as the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were still on an upward trajectory.

The health department will watch the situation keenly to introduce necessary interventions if the numbers continue to rise.

In other provinces such as the North West, Free State and Northern Cape the numbers of cases have been relatively low but containment measures in these provinces are still critical in managing the pandemic.

Kubayi said next week the country expected to reach President Cyril Ramaphosa’s target of 300 000 vaccinations a day.

However, she warned that the country’s vaccine supply was currently constrained, which negatively affected the vaccination rates as some vaccination sites ran out of vaccines and people had to be turned away.

However, South Africa's vaccine supply is expected to get a significant injection over the next week, with about seven-million doses entering the supply line.

More than 7-million people have been vaccinated so far, with the Johnson & Johnson batches received and Pfizer vaccines expected in the coming days.

This week the number of vaccinated people per day was around 220 000.

Meanwhile, Pfizer and BioNTech have struck a deal for South Africa's Biovac Institute to process and distribute over 100-million doses a year of their Covid-19 vaccine for the African Union, beginning in 2022.

Kubayi said, owing to this, the country’s vaccination supply would be significantly fast-tracked.

“This is what we emphasise especially as we engage with our manufacturers to keep to the time frame and dates that they have given us in delivering the vaccine because if they miss a date or delay by a day or two, it impacts negatively on our vaccine programme,” she said.