South Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases have risen to 4 793 with three more deaths.
SOUTH Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases have risen to 4 793 with three more deaths, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Monday.
This takes the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 90. South Africa recorded its first Covid-19 death exactly a month ago, on March 27, when the country entered into a stringent Level 5 lockdown.
Monday’s confirmed cases are an increase of 247 on Sunday’s confirmed cases.
The minister said more than 170 000 tests had now been conducted since March.
The Western Cape continued to have the most cases in the country, followed by Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
In terms of deaths, the Western Cape still leads the pack, followed by KZN and the Eastern Cape.
BREAKDOWN OF CONFIRMED CASES BY PROVINCE
Western Cape – 1 737
Gauteng – 1 353
KwaZulu-Natal – 902
Eastern Cape – 588
Free State – 111
Limpopo – 31
North West – 28
Mpumalanga – 26
Northern Cape – 17
Unallocated – 0
Meanwhile, 217 Cuban health workers touched down in the country in the early hours of Monday morning. They are expected to be in the country for a year, at least.
Mkhize said they had been brought in to assist the country in its response to the Covid-19 virus.
He said the Cuban professionals included specialists in the areas of Family Medicine, Infection Prevention Control, Case Management, Regulatory Authority, Epidemiology and Surveillance, Health Technology and Biostatistics.
Mkhize said Cuba’s disaster preparedness and its consistent deployment of medical brigades for disaster relief wherever required, which continues to earn Havana goodwill worldwide.
“As South Africa, we have taken an additional step which is in line with our lockdown regulations. This team will be put in precautionary quarantine as they await their test results. We will also use this period to fully induct them into the South African situational analysis and the various provinces they will be deployed to,” said the minister.
Mkhize said the health workers would be deployed to the provinces once they had been quarantined.
