‘Red alert’: This is where most of the cases are in SA’s districts

In a briefing on the classification of industries as part of the risk-adjusted strategy on reopening the economy, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma published a map showing all the districts and their risk level.

While the map shows only a few areas in red – the epicentres of the virus across the country, the minister said interprovincial travel was still being limited to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from these places to less affected areas.

She emphasised that the country was still on level 5 of the lockdown until Friday. If people failed to abide by level 4 regulations and cases rose, the country would quickly go back to level 5, she said.

Level 4 means the lockdown will still be there, with only a few things that will change.

When government eases the lockdown, it will be guided by the number of cases in an area, meaning some areas may remain on level 5 while others go to level 2.

“I think that shows you where we are; so the whole country will be level 4, but there may come a time where we differentiate the levels,” she said.

Areas in the red are the epicentres of the virus, followed by the orange, yellow and the blue areas.

According to the map, the epicentres of the virus are the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape, the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.

Many parts of the Western Cape are in orange, except the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, which is in the red, and the Central Karoo District Municipality, which is in the blue.

Gauteng remains a high-risk area, with only one district – the Sedibeng District Municipality, in the blue.

The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and the West Rand District Municipality are orange.

The red spots on the map are unfortunately where economic activities are concentrated, said Dlamini-Zuma, who said it would be a big challenge to balance the resumption of economic activity with continued measures to curb spread of the virus in these areas.

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