South African health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Thursday has announced an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases from 1,353 on Tuesday to 1,462 on Thursday. File picture: Jairus Mmutle/Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) South African health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Thursday has announced an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases from 1,353 on Tuesday to 1,462 on Thursday. File picture: Jairus Mmutle/Government Communication and Information System (GCIS)
Pretoria – Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced that the confirmed coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in South Africa have increased to 1 462, up from 1 353 on Tuesday.
“The total number of those who have tested today stands at 1 462 and so there has been quite an increase. But even with all that increase, we have indicated that there is a restraint in the numbers, which we think is an impact of the lockdown.
"The fact that we have closed the borders, there isn’t a lot of movement with people coming from outside; the fact that people are in their homes means that there is not a lot of mixing of people in large volumes and large numbers,” Mkhize said in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
“That has really made a huge impact. But it is still very early days, we are only just starting and our current projections are indicating that we still need to get out and go and find more people who could be positive out in the community. We will continue to do that.”
On Tuesday, the confirmed cases stood at 1 353, which means the increase in cases over the past two days is 109.
South Africa is under a 21-day national lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.
African News Agency (ANA)
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