2 May 2020 – Confirmed Covid-19 infections in South Africa have risen to 5 951, with 13 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Friday (1 May 2020). This is an increase of 304 confirmed cases on Thursday’s figures.
Thirteen new fatalities were reported by the minister, bringing the death toll to 116. The latest deaths occured in the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape.
The number of Covid-19 tests conducted to date is 217 522, of which 9 992were done in the last 24 hours, Mkhize said.
A total of 2 382 patients have recovered from the virus.
BREAKDOWN OF CASES BY PROVINCE:
Western Cape – 2 507
Gauteng – 1 507
KwaZulu-Natal – 1006
Eastern Cape – 691
Free State – 118
Limpopo – 34
North West – 35
Mpumalanga – 35
Northern Cape – 17
The figures for the Western Cape differ from those announced by Premier Alan Winde earlier on Friday because the national figures are compiled from data supplied before the provincial figures are announced.
With Workers’ Day imarking the start of the new Level 4 regulations, leading Covid-19 experts believe the easing of the lockdown will see the infection rate increase until the beginning of September by up to 10%.
Without the hard lockdown, the country was expected to have a daily infection rate of about 33%, said Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform at the University of KwaZulu-Natal,
With the easing of the lockdown regulations, De Oliveira believes the infection rates will increase to about 10% per day.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who chairs the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, which advises the minister of Health on how the government should respond to the pandemic, was adamant that the infection rate would increase, but could not stipulate by what percentage.
(source: IOL)