{"id":388173,"date":"2020-04-07T16:32:57","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T14:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=388173"},"modified":"2020-04-07T16:32:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T14:32:57","slug":"1749-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-with-deaths-up-to-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/388173\/1749-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-with-deaths-up-to-13\/","title":{"rendered":"1,749 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa, with deaths up to 13"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health has confirmed that there are now 1,749 coronavirus cases in South Africa, with one more person succumbing to the virus.<\/p>\n<p>This is an increase of 63 cases from last reporting, while total deaths now at 13.<\/p>\n<p>The latest victim was a male who was suffering from stage 4 prostate cancer, the department said, sending its condolences to the family affected.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">As at today, the total number of confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19<\/a> cases is 1749. There is also another death, bringing the total to 13 deaths. It was a male who had stage 4 prostrate cancer at Parklands Hospital. We convey our condolences to the family of the deceased <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ZweliMkhize?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ZweliMkhize<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Department of Health: COVID-19 (@COVID_19_ZA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/COVID_19_ZA\/status\/1247519773476311041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 7, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, 66 people have tested positive over the past few days from one place &#8211; St Augustine&#8217;s Hospital in Durban.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbout 48 of them are staff. The Provincial department is engaging the hospital, with a view to closing parts of the hospital down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope the fumigation process will start soon there. We have also assigned specialists there. We must always be on the lookout. The infection can seep in from any institution. We must now trace all the contacts. It is a matter of serious concern and we are dealing with it,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the number of patients who are being treated, are slowly recovering, adding that mass testing has also started in all provinces.<\/p>\n<p>With regards to personal protective equipment (PPE), the Minister said they do not have at the moment enough patients to exhaust the pre-existing stock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone is anxious. Healthcare workers are nervous. But it is possible for them to point out where the shortages are, so we can move stock around,\u201d Mkhize said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs stock comes in, we will start preparing for the period after. So we are preparing ahead. We don\u2019t even have a hundred people in hospital at the moment countrywide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Private sector partners with government<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Motsepe Foundation today donated much-needed PPE to the Department of Health that will last the State eight weeks.<\/p>\n<p>This will go a long way in safeguarding health workers who are in the frontline caring for the COVID-19 patients.<\/p>\n<p>The organisation delivered the PPE to Minister Mkhize to distribute to nine provinces.<\/p>\n<p>The handover is against the backdrop of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers&#8217; Union (Nehawu) approaching the labour court to compel the Department of Health to provide PPE due to the lack of masks, gloves and sanitisers in health facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Mkhize thanked the Motsepe Foundation for their contribution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTop of the list is 200 000 surgical masks and thank you for your swift action and generous donation, Patrice and Precious [Motsepe],\u201d he said, adding that the PPE is an important contribution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis stock was intercepted. [And] we were able to pay upfront using the Motsepe Foundation\u2019s donation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mkhize said the partnership between government and the private sector is key and that he\u2019s expecting more consignments to come in because of such collaborations.<\/p>\n<p>He said the government also worked with India and China which helped the deliveries to come through to our shores.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo key areas of fighting this infection. One is lockdown, sanitation and hygiene. The second is to make sure the sick get better. Here our health workers are key and, in the frontline,\u201d Mkhize stressed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Limited access to supplies worldwide<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The World Health Organisation (WHO) has noted that there\u2019s limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>According to the agency this shortage is sparked by the \u201crising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse\u201d and as a result is putting the health workers\u2019 lives at risk and leaving them vulnerable as they take care of the coronavirus patients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can\u2019t stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first,\u201d said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.<\/p>\n<p>WHO estimates that 89 million medical masks are required for the COVID-19 response, 76 million for examination gloves, while 1.6 million goggles are needed each month across the globe.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla made the assurance during a ministerial press briefing where he said the government would be getting stock this week.<\/p>\n<p>Global coronavirus cases were at 1,364,737 on Tuesday afternoon, with total deaths sitting at 76,482. There have been 293,879 recoveries so far. Of the 994,376 active cases, 47,618 people are in serious or critical condition.<\/p>\n<p>The USA has become the epicentre of the viral outbreak, sitting with 369,179 cases &#8211; more than Spain and Italy combined. Over 11,000 people have died in the USA so far.<\/p>\n<p>While it is sitting third in terms of overall infections, Italy has still experienced the most deaths in the world due to the virus (over 16,500 people).<\/p>\n<p><em>With SANews<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/388023\/south-africa-plans-to-build-10000-new-coronavirus-ventilators-by-the-end-of-june\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">South Africa plans to build 10,000 new coronavirus ventilators by the end of June<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health has confirmed that there are now 1,749 coronavirus cases in South Africa, with one more person succumbing to the virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":381935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-388173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388175,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388173\/revisions\/388175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}