Seven more people have died in South Africa from the coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the death toll to 86 as the number of confirmed cases increased to 4 361.
The Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize said in a statement that four of those that lost their lives are from the Eastern Cape, two from the Western Cape and one from Limpopo.
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Mkhize says a total of 161 004, of which 8 614 were done in the last 24 hours.
The Western Cape is now the epicentre of the virus in the country with a total of 1 514 cases followed by Gauteng with 1 304 cases. Northern Cape has the least number of infections with 16 confirmed cases.
In the video below, COVID-19 cases in South Africa rise to 4 361:
Western Cape considering cremating people who died from COVID-19
Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said last Saturday that the province has not rule out the possibility of cremating people who have died due to COVID-19 should the need arises. Mbombo said that this is due to the unique nature of the unique nature of the virus.
She said the contagious nature of COVID-19 could see to the change of funeral traditions.
“Of course although in South Africa we don’t have as much compared at this stage to international where people are dying in numbers like in the US, but there might be a time, as I said we don’t know how the disease will evolve. There might be a time where either cremation or mass burial which we have seen in New York City, but we are not there at that level yet.”
Fight against COVID-19 in Limpopo
Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha said in mid-April that they hope to reach about one million households in their COVID-19 screening and testing campaign. Mathabatha said 10 000 volunteers, including community health workers and caregivers, will form part of the campaign.
“We don’t want to tell our people to test elsewhere because what we want to do is to go to various households; to visit the households. We have about 900 000 households that we want to visit. Because Limpopo has got 1.6 million households, we want to make sure at least a million or 900 000 is visited.”
Limpopo MEC for Transport and Community Safety Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya expressed concern on the high number of people, mostly in the rural areas, who are continuing to flout the nationwide lockdown regulations.
Malaria
Meanwhile, Saturday is World Malaria Day and Minister Mkhize has reiterated South Africa’s support of the global campaign titled “Zero Malaria Starts With Me.”
“We are mindful that while we put our efforts in fighting the COVID-19, we dare not lose sight of our determination to fight against malaria. This requires us to be vigilant as we continue to contend with communicable and non-communicable diseases,” Mkhize said in a statement.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) called for countries not to minimise prevention and treatment of malaria in the fight against COVID-19. The organisation says that failure to prioritise the fight against malaria could undo the progress already made and could see to the doubling of malaria cases in Africa as compared to 2018 cases.
It’s #WorldMalariaDay!
1 year ago, Malawi became the 1st country in the world to introduce a #malaria vaccine to young children through routine immunization as part of a landmark pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya & Malawi
? https://t.co/o4pRcUoGIN pic.twitter.com/UNqDRUckZc
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 25, 2020
When Lordina was 5-month old, she became sick with #malaria. Her mother, Vida, had to sponge bathe her to try to bring her temperature down. Last year, she became one of the 1st children in Ghana to receive the RTS,S malaria vaccine through routine immunization.#VaccinesWork pic.twitter.com/Uzjpu75fdb
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 25, 2020
Mkhize says many of the policies applied in the fight against COVID-19 were drawn from the campaign to eliminate malaria by 2023.
“Indeed many of the policies applied for COVID-19 were lessons drawn from the campaign to eliminate malaria by 2023: community screening and testing, the rollout of insecticide treated nets and indoor residual spraying at community levels, multi-sectoral and multinational co-operation for malaria prevention and treatment tools are all strategies that have been adopted and modified for the accelerated and concerted global effort against COVID-19.”
Mkhize has urged people to keep their eyes on the prize; that is eliminating malaria by 2023 as stated in the National Malaria Elimination Strategic Plan for 2019-2023.
Statement by Minister Mkhize on COVID-19:
