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Millions of people may have contracted COVID-19: Mkhize

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Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize in giving the latest update on coronavirus (COVID-19) says that studies indicate that an estimated 12 million people may have contracted COVID-19 in South Africa.

As the country records a steady decline in new infections, Mkhize says revised models predict that there are South Africans with detected and undetected coronavirus infections.

South Africa has recorded over 650 000 COVID-19 cases, of which 583 000 people have recovered. Over 15 600 people have died from COVID-19-related illnesses.


Mkhize says health officials are trying to detect society’s level of immunity to the virus.

“The 12 million comes from a figure that is a general assumption we make, how many people should be infected before we can get basic herd immunity. So that is around 20 percent of the population which is about 12 million people. Right now, nobody really knows how many people have got immunity. We have done some interesting reports from UCT and WITS which have found that there are variable numbers of people with antibodies which are much more than the numbers that are shown to have been infected in the areas.”

Dr. Zweli Mkhize in the video below talks to SABC News

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