28 April 2020 – South Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases have risen to 4 793 with three more deaths, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Monday (27 April 2020).
This takes the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 90. South Africa recorded its first Covid-19 death exactly a month ago, on March 27, when the country entered into a stringent Level 5 lockdown.
Monday’s confirmed cases are an increase of 247 on Sunday’s 4 546 cases.
The three latest fatalities are a A 54-year-old KwaZulu-Natal man with underlying diabetes who presented with respiratory distress, a 79-year-old chronically ill Western Cape man who presented with shortness of breath and chest pain and a 58-year-old HIV+ Western Cape man who presented with imminent cardiovascular arrest.
The minister said a total of 178 470 Covid-19 have been conducted to date, of which 9 827 were done in the last 24 hours.
The Western Cape continued to have the most cases in the country, followed by Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
In terms of deaths, the Western Cape still leads the pack, followed by KZN and the Eastern Cape.
BREAKDOWN OF CONFIRMED CASES BY PROVINCE
Western Cape – 1 737
Gauteng – 1 353
KwaZulu-Natal – 902
Eastern Cape – 588
Free State – 111
Limpopo – 31
North West – 28
Mpumalanga – 26
Northern Cape – 17
Unallocated – 0
Meanwhile, 217 Cuban health workers touched down in the country in the early hours of Monday morning. They are expected to be in the country for a year, at least.
Mkhize said they had been brought in to assist the country in its response to the Covid-19 virus.
He said the Cuban professionals included specialists in the areas of Family Medicine, Infection Prevention Control, Case Management, Regulatory Authority, Epidemiology and Surveillance, Health Technology and Biostatistics.
Mkhize said Cuba’s disaster preparedness and its consistent deployment of medical brigades for disaster relief wherever required, which continues to earn Havana goodwill worldwide.
“As South Africa, we have taken an additional step which is in line with our lockdown regulations. This team will be put in precautionary quarantine as they await their test results. We will also use this period to fully induct them into the South African situational analysis and the various provinces they will be deployed to,” said the minister.
Mkhize said the health workers would be deployed to the provinces once they had been quarantined.
“We have no doubt our public health facilities will benefit from this generous and selfless gesture by our Cuban brethren,” he said.
Globally, the coronavirus has now infected over 3 million people and claimed 207 000 lives around the world. Recoveries around the world stand at over 880 000.
(source: IOL)