Johannesburg, June 11: South Africa has "technically" entered the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases said.

The national seven-day moving average incidence, which reached 5,959 cases, exceeded the new wave threshold defined by the Ministerial Advisory Committee of the government, Xinhua news agency quoted the Institute as saying on Thursday.

The threshold was defined as 30 per cent of the peak incidence of the previous wave. UK in Early Stages of Third COVID-19 Wave: Scientist.

The Institute also reported 9,149 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the national tally to 1,722,086, while the death toll stood at 57,410.

The positivity testing rate was 15.7 per cent, it said.

The majority of new cases were from the Gauteng province, which hosts the nation's economic hub Johannesburg and the administrative capital Pretoria, accounting for 61 per cent of the infections, according to the statement.

Western Cape province, home to the legislative capital Cape Town, came second with 10 per cent of the new cases, it read.

Previously, four of South Africa's nine provinces, including Northern Cape, Free State, North West and Gauteng, had already entered a third wave at the provincial level.

On Thursday morning, Western Cape said it was entering the third wave.

The nation plans to vaccinate about 67 per cent of the population by the end of this year with three phases to achieve herd immunity.

Following the first phase for healthcare workers only, the current second phase inoculates persons aged 60 years and above first, who will be followed by other groups of people including essential workers, persons in congregate settings and persons over 18 years of age with co-morbidities.

South Africa, which has the highest Covid infection tally in Africa, moved to lockdown level two from the previous level one from May 31 as the number of infections began to rise sharply in several parts of the country and the positivity rate more than doubled in a month, from around 4 per cent to more than 11 per cent.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 11, 2021 01:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).