Cape Town, Jul 5 (IANS): South Africa has marked 100 days since the country went into a Covid-19 lockdown amid a rising national caseload. The country enforced the lockdown on March 27, three weeks after the first case was detected. Since May 1, it has started phased easing of lockdown.

Nonetheless, as the country is slowly downgrading lockdown rules, it has seen rapid rises in coronavirus cases and deaths.

The country reported 10,853 new cases over the past 24 hours -- another record daily increase, taking the national tally to 187,977, according to a Covid-19 update report released on Saturday by the South African Health Department, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, the nationwide death toll has reached 3,026, with 74 new deaths reported over the past 24 hours.

The Western Cape province remains the epicentre of South Africa with 68,376 cases and 2,026 deaths as of Saturday, both figures the highest among all the nine provinces in the country, according to the update.

In his remarks to mark the 100 days in lockdown, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde warned that South Africans will have to live with the virus for quite some time to come, saying that the lockdown has been hard for residents because it's been a completely new experience for everyone.