{"id":417645,"date":"2020-07-18T21:37:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T19:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=417645"},"modified":"2020-07-18T21:37:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T19:37:46","slug":"350879-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-4948","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/417645\/350879-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-4948\/","title":{"rendered":"350,879 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa as deaths climb to 4,948"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now a total of 350,879 cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>This is an increase of 13,285 cases from the 337,594 infections reported on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The minister announced 144 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the total to 4,948 casualties, following a 24-hour high of 216 casualties on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to <span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">182,230<\/span> recoveries to date.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 2.42 million tests have been conducted, with 49,688 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 350 879, the total number of deaths is 4 948 and the total number of recoveries is 182 230. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V93vvAEkfZ\">pic.twitter.com\/V93vvAEkfZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1284571000449925120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Since 31 December 2019 and as of 18 July 2020, approximately 14.2 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported, including approximately 600,000 deaths, and around 8.5 million recoveries.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg reported that a coronavirus antibody test backed by the UK government was 98.6% accurate in secret human trials held last month, citing the Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p>The fingerprick test can tell within 20 minutes if a person has been exposed to the virus.<\/p>\n<p>It is developed by Oxford University together with UK diagnostics companies, a partnership set up by the government after a consignment of Chinese-made fingerprick tests proved largely useless, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists at King\u2019s College London meanwhile, identified six different types of coronavirus using artificial intelligence software that revealed clusters of symptoms, the Telegraph said in a separate report.<\/p>\n<p>These findings are likely to help doctors spot the highest-risk patients.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Booze ban<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s biggest liquor makers have offered to help get people to drink less after the government banned the sale of alcohol for a second time this year, citing health concerns, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n<p>The surprise decision to reintroduce the prohibition hit the industry hard, according to the manufacturers\u2019 spokesman Sibani Mngadi.<\/p>\n<p>It lost almost 117,000 jobs during the first moratorium that began in March and ended June 1, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The government says the latest ban is aimed at reducing alcohol-related hospital admissions as the surging number of coronavirus cases strains emergency wards.<\/p>\n<p>The industry, which has introduced responsible-drinking programs in the past, now wants to work more closely with the state and civil society groups to identify and resolve problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on research and credible current data,\u201d the companies want to \u201cjointly design interventions targeting these key areas with enhanced current programs and new measurable and evidence-based initiatives,\u201d Mngadi said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The first ban on alcohol sales was implemented on March 27, when the government introduced a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Health released a report July 14 showing the restrictions that were in place in that period reduced the number of trauma cases at hospitals by as much as half.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/417635\/experts-question-underreported-virus-deaths-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Experts question \u2018underreported\u2019 virus deaths in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now a total of 350,879 cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":417559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-417645","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\/417645","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=417645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417655,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417645\/revisions\/417655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}