{"id":416717,"date":"2020-07-15T21:22:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T19:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=416717"},"modified":"2020-07-15T21:22:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T19:22:14","slug":"311049-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-4453","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/416717\/311049-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-4453\/","title":{"rendered":"311,049 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa as deaths climb to 4,453"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now 311,049 total cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>This is an increase of 12,757 cases from the 298,292 cases reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The minister announced 107 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the total to 4,453 casualties, and follows a high of 174 casualties on Monday, while he pointed to 160,693 recoveries to date.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 2.27 million tests have been conducted, with 45,389 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 total number of confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19<\/a> cases is 311 049, the total number of deaths is 4453 and the total number of recoveries is 160 693. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yUUxagngE5\">pic.twitter.com\/yUUxagngE5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1283481162573320194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 15, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nSince 31 December 2019 and as of 15 July 2020, more than 13.5 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported, including approximately 582,000 deaths, and around 7.9 million recoveries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPositive news is coming\u201d on initial trials of the Covid-19 vaccine that the University of Oxford is developing with AstraZeneca Plc, ITV\u2019s Robert Peston said in a tweet, without specifying how he obtained the information, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe vaccine is generating the kind of antibody and T-cell (killer cell) response that the researchers would hope to see,\u201d Peston wrote, adding that details will be released soon in medical journal The Lancet.<\/p>\n<p>Oxford\u2019s vaccine trial &#8211; led by Sarah Gilbert, who is profiled this week in Bloomberg Businessweek &#8211; is already undergoing phase III testing in Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>The trial shot is seen as being months ahead of other key candidates.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Positive news is coming on Oxford Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine is generating the kind of antibody and T-cell (killer cell) response that the researchers would hope to see, I understand. Details soon in \u2066\u2066<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheLancet?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheLancet<\/a>\u2069 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7guw9TIbX9\">https:\/\/t.co\/7guw9TIbX9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Robert Peston (@Peston) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Peston\/status\/1283342868610940929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 15, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Job losses<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A team of South African researchers have published the <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/416483\/report-reveals-shocking-number-of-job-losses-in-south-africa-during-lockdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey<\/a> (NIDS-CRAM) which looks at the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and countrywide lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>The study surveyed 7,000 South Africans and can be considered the most nationally representative survey that currently exists, the researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>The key finding was that approximately three million people lost their jobs over the lockdown period, representing an 18% decline in employment from 17 million people employed in February, to 14 million people employed in April 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Accounting for a 95% confidence interval, the decline in the number of people employed from February to April was likely between 2.5 million and 3.6 million, the researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>They stressed however, that it can be difficult to define \u2019employment\u2019 in the current environment due to the number of furloughed workers and temporary layoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Using income as a definition of employment, the group found that the proportion of adults who earned an income in February declined by 33% which is made up of a roughly equal share of those who lost their job, and those who were furloughed.<\/p>\n<p>The report revealed a 40% decline in \u2018active employment\u2019 also split equally between those who were laid off, and those who were either furloughed or on paid leave.<\/p>\n<p>Job losses were disproportionately concentrated among the already disadvantaged groups in the labour market.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/416567\/expect-random-stop-searches-and-other-clampdowns-to-hit-south-africa-police-minister\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Expect random stop searches and other clampdowns to hit South Africa: police minister<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now 311,049 total cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":390209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-416717","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\/416717","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=416717"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416825,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416717\/revisions\/416825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}