The COVID-19 related death toll in South Africa has now risen to 50. This is an increase of two from Thursday’s figure of 48.
The Health Ministry has also announced that the number of confirmed cases now stands at 2 783.
Breakdown of latest COVID-19 stats below:
The deaths were recorded in the Western Cape.
The number of positive cases are also on a sharp rise with 178 new cases.
Gauteng remains the epicenter of the pandemic with 1018 cases followed by the Western Cape with 717 and KwaZulu-Natal with 591.
On Thursday, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo recorded their first deaths. The Northern Cape is the least affected province with only 16 cases. In a statement, the Health Ministry says to date, over 100 000 tests have been conducted.
Simplified breakdown of COVID-19 in SA below:
The Department has also conveyed its condolences to the families and thanked the health workers that treated the deceased patients.
Meanwhile, Head of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, Professor Salim Abdool Karim says South Africa’s rollout of the coronavirus community screening and testing will lead to a drastic increase in the infection rate because that’s when the real picture will emerge.
Image: Twitter@AbdoolKarim
Karim’s webinar hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal on Friday unpacked his thoughts around critical issues, such as the impact of increased community screening on infection numbers, how the virus will impact HIV positive people, and the sanctity of scientific data in tackling the scourge
He introduced himself as a spokesperson for the brilliant scientists, researchers and scholars making up the COVID-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee. However, this world-renowned epidemiologist is being called upon to use his years of leading HIV research and leadership to drive South Africa’s COVID-19 fight.
Karim cleared up concerns around why infection numbers are increasing despite the lockdown, something that’s been alarming South Africans. He explained that as the country’s screening and testing increase, so too will the number of new cases.
Karim says the third week of the lockdown is a more accurate indicator of the rate of infections in the country, compared to the first two.
He says, “We had such a strong effect of the state of disaster that there’s not much room for the lockdown to drop the cases even more. So when we look at the cases we’ve seen in this last week I bet all of you are wondering, why is it so much so often above the 90 mark? The problem is that we initiated a community health worker programme. So suddenly in this third week we now have a whole new reporting method. Active case finding.”
