LATEST – 22 April 2020
Total cases are now 3 465.
There have been 58 confirmed deaths so far.
There have also been 1 055 recoveries: Gauteng (545), Western Cape (216), KwaZulu-Natal (151), Free State (74), Eastern Cape (15), Limpopo (21), Mpumalanga (14), North West (13), Northern Cape (6).
PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN:
1 199 – Gauteng – 7 deaths
1 010– Western Cape – 17 deaths
671 – KwaZulu-Natal – 23 deaths
106 – Free State – 5 deaths
24 – North West
24 – Mpumalanga
27 – Limpopo – 1 death
345 – Eastern Cape – 5 deaths
16 – Northern Cape
43 – Unallocated
Recent updates from the health authorities have included less details than updates up until 22 March – those details can be found here: Details of confirmed cases.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize notes in a statement:
“South Africans would have noted that as the number of confirmed cases increase, some cases were unallocated by province, age or gender. This is because the NICD not only has the responsibility of analysing data from each laboratory, but has found itself searching for the missing patient information of the confirmed cases.
“This has proven to be an administrative burden that, if not rectified, will hamper our efforts to immediately be in contact with patients who have tested positive, determine whether they require hospitalisation or can be treated in self-quarantine and more importantly trace all other individuals that they have been in direct contact with.
“This is the only way we can flatten the curve: We must know every individual that has been exposed, they must be immediately screened and those that require testing, must be tested without any delay while they remain in self – quarantine.
“If those contacts test positive, we must further identify their contacts because they also become potential positive cases. Simply put, this is a vicious cycle! And without quickly fully identifying confirmed cases and their direct contacts, the spread of the virus will just keep rising. This therefore calls for us to take stringent measures to ensure that we have all the information that is required.”