{"id":412161,"date":"2020-06-30T22:18:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=412161"},"modified":"2020-06-30T22:18:25","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:18:25","slug":"151209-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-2657","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/412161\/151209-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-2657\/","title":{"rendered":"151,209 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa as deaths climb to 2,657"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now 151,209 total cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>This is an increase of 6,945 cases from 144,264 cases reported on Monday \u2013 while a record 24-hour high of 7,210 cases was recorded over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The minister announced 128 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the total to <span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">2,657<\/span> casualties, with <span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">73,543<\/span> recoveries to date.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 1.63 million tests have been conducted to date, with 33,013 tests conducted over the past 24 hours, Dr Mkhize said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">As of today, the cumulative number of confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19<\/a> cases in South Africa is 151 209, the total number of deaths is 2657 and the number of recoveries is 73 543. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ojHjlM19tG\">pic.twitter.com\/ojHjlM19tG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1278055900201324544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 30, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Globally, since 31 December 2019 and as of 30 June 2020, in excess of 10.4 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported, including in excess of 508,000 deaths, and 5.7 million recoveries.<\/p>\n<p>A strain of flu virus spreading in Chinese pigs has shown it can also infect humans, suggesting that another pathogen with pandemic potential waits in the wings behind the coronavirus, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n<p>The flu strain that jumped to humans has become predominant among pigs across China since 2016, according to a team of researchers that includes George Gao Fu, head of China\u2019s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers based their findings on surveillance studies conducted in 10 provinces from 2011 through 2018.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New restrictions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dr Mkhize has provided clarity around South Africa\u2019s current lockdown and the possibility of reintroducing further restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>In a series of tweets published on Tuesday morning (30 June), Mkhize said that government\u2019s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) has not discussed the possibility of introducing further lockdown restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>However, he noted that the government could still consider location-based lockdowns if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has not been any decision taken (to have another lockdown) and certainly the NCCC does not take lightly a decision of that nature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere may be (a) need in some areas for restrictions, it may not be national but localised. But no such decision has been taken as yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Mkhize indicated that some areas which may require a greater response than others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the challenges with Gauteng is the fact that you have different metropolitan areas, which is one ecosystem. As we move into the future we need to be open-minded as to what our needs are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could not sustain the lockdown the way it was. We needed people to get back to their jobs and for the economy to be revived. We needed to do that under new circumstances where we use masks, social distance and sanitise our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/411905\/mkhize-says-localised-lockdown-could-be-used-in-south-africa-as-coronavirus-infections-rise-faster-than-expected\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Mkhize says \u2018localised lockdown\u2019 could be used in South Africa, as coronavirus infections rise faster than expected<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now 151,209 total cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":390205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-412161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412161","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=412161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412235,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412161\/revisions\/412235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}