{"id":427186,"date":"2020-08-20T08:22:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T06:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=427186"},"modified":"2020-08-20T08:22:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T06:22:52","slug":"south-africa-is-passing-its-coronavirus-peak-mkhize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/427186\/south-africa-is-passing-its-coronavirus-peak-mkhize\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa is passing its coronavirus peak: Mkhize"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says that South Africa is moving away from its coronavirus peak and that the country&#8217;s recovery rate is continuing to increase.<\/p>\n<p>Mkhize said on Wednesday (19 August) said that the country has now passed the &#8216;inflection point&#8217; and was now showing a downward trend.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whereas the numbers are approaching 600,000 cases, we do know that there will be more people than that who are positive in the country,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said that the country has now passed 12,000 deaths which, while a very high number in terms of loss of life, &#8220;there are diseases that cause worse challenges than that,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The minister also noted that South Africa&#8217;s death rate was lower than other countries, which was a positive way to look at things.<\/p>\n<p>The country also boasts a recovery rate of over 82%, with some provinces reporting over 90% recoveries.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On that point, it is the right time for us to start considering the steps that must be done as we move through the risk-adjusted approach towards normality,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ABztL8wbpyY\" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"fontstyle2\">As of Wednesday, a cumulative total of <\/span><span class=\"fontstyle0\">596,060 <\/span><span class=\"fontstyle2\">confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa have been recorded with 3,916 new cases identified in the previous 24 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"fontstyle2\">The total number of tests conducted to date is\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"fontstyle0\">3,455,671 <\/span><span class=\"fontstyle2\">with\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"fontstyle0\">25,324 <\/span><span class=\"fontstyle2\">new tests conducted since the last report<\/span><\/p>\n<p>An additional 159 deaths were reported i the previous 24 hours, bringing the <span class=\"fontstyle2\">total Covid-19 related cumulative deaths to <\/span><span class=\"fontstyle0\">12,423.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19<\/a> Statistics in SA as at 19 August. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HpCIFcafP0\">pic.twitter.com\/HpCIFcafP0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1296183713362063361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 19, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>South Africa moved to a level 2 lockdown at 00h01 on Tuesday (18 August).<\/p>\n<p>As part of the move, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that a number of restrictions would be eased, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All restrictions on inter-provincial travel will be lifted;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Accommodation facilities will be permitted, in line with approved protocols;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Restaurants, bars and taverns will be permitted to operate subject to regulations;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Restrictions on the sale of tobacco will be lifted;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Prohibition on the sale of alcohol will be lifted subject to restrictions. On-site consumption will be permitted until 22h00;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Liquor outlets can sell liquor from Monday to Thursday, between 09h00 and 17h00;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Gyms and fitness centres can open, with approved protocols in place;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The curfew will remain in place from 22h00 \u2013 04h00;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Gatherings of more than 50 people are still prohibited, as are sports events with spectators;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>International travel is still prohibited outside of the existing regulations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/427158\/south-africa-probes-dubious-virus-contracts-worth-r5-billion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa probes dubious virus contracts worth R5 billion<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says that South Africa is moving away from its coronavirus peak and that the country&#8217;s recovery rate is continuing to increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":401955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-427186","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\/427186","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=427186"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427224,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427186\/revisions\/427224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}