Pretoria, Feb 20 (TIWN) A total of 570 police officers have succumbed to Covid-19 in South Africa while over 27,000 were infected, said Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday.

Cele made the remarks in Pretoria while releasing the crime statistics for the third quarter of the 2020-2021 financial year.  He stated that COVID-19 continues to affect the healthcare system, economy and livelihood, adding that it "is also impacting on policing, infecting over 27,000 members and claiming the lives of 570 of them."  "It is painful to see members of the police force dying of COVID-19," said the minister.  At the same time we remain encouraged that over 25,000 of our members have recovered and are back at work, serving their communities," he added.  "While some of our members fight for their lives, others continue their fight against ruthless criminals, each day," said Cele.  South Africa now has 1,498,766 cumulative COVID-19 infections up until Thursday. A total of 1,403,214 people have recovered from COVID-19, representing a recovery rate of 93.6 percent.