Covid-19: Number of coronavirus cases in SA grows by 424
The number of deaths due to the coronavirus has increased by eight.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that the number of coronavirus cases in South Africa has grown to 8 232 on 7 May.
He announced the statistics during a handover of personal protective equipment. He said that the number of cases in the country has grown by 424. Over 292 000 tests have been conducted thus far and over seven million people have been screened.
There have been 161 deaths due to the coronavirus, this is an increase of eight deaths from the previous day. “We wish to convey our sincere condolences to the members of the family and loved ones. We convey our gratitude and appreciation to the staff who looked after them.”
The number of cases per province is as follows:
- Western Cape: 3 994
- Gauteng: 1 804
- KwaZulu-Natal: 1 204
- Eastern Cape: 929
- Free State: 134
- Mpumalanga: 59
- Limpopo: 41
- North West: 40
- Northern Cape: 27
Mkhize said, “What we are seeing in the Western Cape is what we call cluster outbreaks, most of the metros are showing what we call hotspots. That means we have to find mechanisms to go into those areas to deal with these particular outbreaks more strongly to reduce the rate of spread.”
He explained that they have seen a number of outbreaks in areas such as factories and shopping centres. “We’ll be visiting Western Cape to give them support.”
He added that the outbreak patterns across the country are not the same and there will need to be a differentiation of levels for different provinces. He highlighted that practising hand hygiene, wearing masks and social distancing will need to become the new normal. “In a number of places, it seems people are not taking it seriously, we do want to plead with everybody that it is in our own interests to heed the call to [maintain a safe distance from one another].
“We are worried that after the lockdown there will be a sudden shoot up in cases, simply because of the way we are neglecting managing prevention and containment measures.”
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