Timeline on Covid-19 outbreak in SA: 1st 100 cases
In its latest edition, The Institute of Communicable Disease published a timeline of the first 100 cases that were recorded in South Africa.
With the country now in full nationwide lockdown mode and South African citizens at home as per regulations, government hopes to flatten the curve in terms of the spreading of the coronavirus. In its latest edition, The Institute of Communicable Diseased published a timeline of the first 100 cases that were recorded in South Africa.
31 December 2019
The World Health Organization reports a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China now known to be caused by a novel virus. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been confirmed as the causative virus of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Cases have now been identified in over 100 countries including South Africa.
3 March 2020
The specimen of the first laboratory-confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 is submitted.
5 March 2020
South Africa reports its first imported case of Covid-19, a 38-year-old male from KwaZulu-Natal who travelled to Italy with his wife. They were part of a group of 10 people. One person travelled directly onward to the United Kingdom and the other nine group members arrived back in South Africa on 1 March 2020. The patient consulted a private general practitioner on March 3, with symptoms of fever, headache, malaise, a sore throat and a cough. Of the nine members of the travel group who returned to South Africa, seven individuals were diagnosed with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19.
6 March 2020
The number of confirmed cases increases rapidly, with the majority of cases from Gauteng (54), followed by the Western Cape Province (25), KwaZulu-Natal (18), Mpumalanga (2) and Limpopo (1). The majority of the cases are in the age group 30-39 years. Among the first 100 confirmed cases, 68 were male.
15 March 2020
President Cyril Ramaphosa declares a national state of disaster. Along with this, he announces school closures and travel bans as the number of Covid-19 infections continue to rise.
23 March 2020
The number of confirmed cases in the country has increased to 402, with no reported deaths.
The President further announces a nationwide lockdown for 21 days with effect from midnight Thursday, 26 March 2020. This is done with the aim that social distancing efforts will save millions of South Africans from Covid-19 infections and ease the burden on an already strained healthcare system.
Dr Ann Matthews from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, in the latest edition of the institute’s journal, reiterates that with the onset of the influenza season, it is important to note that the clinical presentations of influenza and Covid-19 are similar.
“As such, it is recommended that the influenza (flu) vaccine be taken, where available, particularly for those aged 65 years and above, those with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women and people living with HIV.”
This weekend, the National Health Department announced that healthcare workers in the country would be given preference in this regard. The decision was made after a spike in infections was recorded among the country’s healthcare workers. Since these workers are battling Covid-19 from the front lines, the country cannot afford to have South Africa’s medical workers infected, Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said.
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