Own Correspondent|Thirteen more South Africans have died of Covid-19 and there are now 5,951 cases in the country.

This means that there was an increase of 304 cases in the last 24 hours, and the death toll has now climbed to 116.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize released the figures in a statement on Friday night. To date, 217,522 tests have been completed, 9,992 in the last 24 hours.

There had also been a recorded 2,382 recoveries.

The Western Cape remained the country’s Covid-19 epicentre, followed by Gauteng and KZN – the latter of which breached the 1,000 mark.

The provincial breakdown was provided as:

• Western Cape — 2,507 (up from 2,342);
• Gauteng — 1,507 (up from 1,446);
• KwaZulu-Natal — 1,006 (up from 980);
• Eastern Cape — 691 (up from 647);
• Free State — 118 (up from 116);
• Mpumalanga — 35 (up from 36);
• North West — 35 (up from 31);
• Limpopo — 34 (up from 32); and
• Northern Cape — 18 (up from 17).