{"id":419759,"date":"2020-07-25T21:41:48","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T19:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=419759"},"modified":"2020-07-25T21:41:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T19:41:48","slug":"434200-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-6655","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/419759\/434200-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa-as-deaths-climb-to-6655\/","title":{"rendered":"434,200 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa as deaths climb to 6,655"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now a total of 434,200 cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>This is an increase of\u00a012,204 cases from the 421,996 infections reported on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The data shows that there are\u00a0312 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the total to\u00a06,655 casualties, with a 24-hour high of 572 deaths reported on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Mkhize pointed to\u00a0263,054 recoveries to date. A total of 2.73 million tests have been conducted, with\u00a046,324 tests conducted over the past 24 hours, the minister 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 434 200, the total number of deaths is 6 655 and the total number recoveries is 263 054. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8O8VJR5uWH\">pic.twitter.com\/8O8VJR5uWH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1287109551779717121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 25, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nThe coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 15.9 million people and killed more than 643,000 worldwide since late January, when it was first reported.<\/p>\n<p>The outbreak spread from the Chinese city of Wuhan to more than 180 countries and territories\u2014affecting every continent except Antarctica.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts to stamp out the pneumonia-like illness have led to entire nations enforcing lockdowns, widespread halts of international travel, mass layoffs and battered financial markets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Taxis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As South Africa grapples with the reintroduction of lockdown rules, question have been asked of government&#8217;s decision to allow taxis to run at full capacity.<\/p>\n<p>While trips of less than 20 minutes in a vehicle with open windows are less risky, longer commutes without proper social distancing increase chances of infection, even with masks, says South African Medical Association chairwoman Angelique Coetzee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis decision was not made in the best interest of patients, but in the best interest of taxi unions,\u201d Coetzee said. About 6% of infected commuters could end up hospitalized and among those, half could die, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Still, taxis have a strong political voice.<\/p>\n<p>The largely informal trade makes an estimated R50 billion ($3 billion) in annual revenue and accounts for 15 million commuter trips daily, according to data compiled by SA Taxi, a lender to the industry.<\/p>\n<p>That compares with just under 1.5 million bus and train journeys, it said. During apartheid, it was one of the few industries open to black entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>While most drivers don\u2019t pay income tax as they work informally, the industry does pay R7 billion annually in fuel levies, according to SA Taxi\u2019s estimates.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/419721\/these-areas-are-emerging-coronavirus-hotspots-in-south-africa-right-now-discovery-data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">These areas are emerging coronavirus hotspots in South Africa right now: Discovery data<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that there are now a total of 434,200 cases of coronavirus in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":390147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-419759","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\/419759","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=419759"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419763,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419759\/revisions\/419763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}