South Africa now has over 11 000 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Tuesday afternoon (12 May 2020).
No new deaths were reported, but as of Monday night, there were 206 Covid-19 deaths in the country.
Mkhize said there were 698 new infections, taking the total cases to 11 350.
More than 90% of the new cases were recorded in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape provinces – with 484 and 148 new cases, respectively.
This also means that the Eastern Cape, with 1 504 infections, now has more confirmed cases than KZN, which has 1 394
.LATEST BREAKDOWN
| New Deaths | New Cases | Total Cases | Total Deaths | |
| South Africa | 0 | 698 | 11350 | 206 |
| Western Cape | 0 | 484 | 6105 | 106 |
| Gauteng | 0 | 43 | 2014 | 22 |
| Eastern Cape | 0 | 148 | 1504 | 24 |
| KZN | 0 | 22 | 1394 | 44 |
| Free State | 0 | 0 | 135 | 6 |
| Mpumalanga | 0 | 0 | 63 | 0 |
| Limpopo | 0 | 0 | 54 | 3 |
| North West | 0 | 1 | 51 | 1 |
| Northern Cape | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 |
The country is currently in Day 47 of its national lockdown which was instituted to curb the spread of the virus.
At the start of May, South Africa eased into level 4 of the national lockdown and allowed just over one million workers to return to work, after instituting the strict level 5 lockdown for 35 days.
In easing into level 4 of the lockdown, the wearing of cloth masks became compulsory for all who were in public. Shops are refusing to serve those who do not cover their faces.
On the last week of the level 5 lockdown, South Africa saw 1 694 new infections between April 24 and 30.
In the same period, there were 24 Covid-19 related deaths.
Mkhize said just under 370 000 people had now been tested for the virus, with the last 13 630 tests conducted over the last 24 hours.
(source: IOL)