In another bout of bad news, South Africa has recorded a staggering 709 coronavirus cases, from 554 on Tuesday, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday, iHarare has just received the information from Reuters.
No deaths have been recorded as yet but 2 patients are reported to be in critical condition. Mkhize made the announcement whilst speaking on local state-owned news channel SABC.
‘We are expecting quite an increase. We are still in very early days,’ Mkhize said.
The country recorded its first case on the 5th of March, 2020, but the number of cases has exponentially increased in the past 3 weeks.
As drastic measures to combat the outbreak, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced a 21-day national lockdown which will start from midnight on March 26.
This also follows after he imposed a travel ban on European countries worst affected by Covid-19 since most of the first reported cases tested positive after having visited coronavirus affected countries.
The new developments come after Minister Mkhize revealed grim expectations for the country, predicting that over half of the country’s population could suffer from COVID-19 infection.
This also comes as neighbouring country, Zimbabwe, recorded its first coronavirus fatality on Monday. The 30-year-old patient had arrived in the country from Newyork, United States of America.
