The Department of Health has confirmed the latest Covid-19 coronavirus cases in South Africa, adding 23 new infections to list, taking the country’s total up to 85.<\/p>\n
The new infections are mostly in Gauteng, which as the country’s most populous province carries the highest risk of transmission. The province accounts for over half of the confirmed cases in the country.<\/p>\n
Among the 23 new cases, eight are local transmissions where the patients had no prior recorded international travel history.<\/p>\n
Also among the new cases are the youngest patients affected, with four cases affecting children aged 2 to 5 years old.<\/p>\n
Globally there have been 198,517 confirmed cases, with 82,763 recoveries and 7,988 deaths. There are 107,766 active cases, where 6,415 are in critical condition.<\/p>\n
These are the new cases:<\/p>\n
Gauteng – 14<\/strong><\/p>\n KwaZulu Natal – 4<\/strong><\/p>\n Western Cape – 5<\/strong><\/p>\n South Africa has declared the Covid-19 pandemic a state of disaster, and is encouraging social distancing as a way to prevent the rapid spread of the virus among the population.<\/p>\n Schools and universities will close from today (18 March), and many businesses are taking extraordinary measures to sanitise workplaces, or even have employees work from home.<\/p>\n International and domestic travel is being discouraged, and gatherings of 100 people or more are being called off.<\/p>\n Further measures include travel bans from high risk countries, and closing around half the country’s ports of entry.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, National Treasury has encouraged businesses to remain open and continue operations as normal, as far as they can, to protect the economy by keeping economic activity up.<\/p>\n\n
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