Mkhize said on Tuesday that as many as 4,000 cases had been recorded over a 24-hour cycle since the outbreak in March.
“Some have even publicly debated whether this increase in numbers means that there is a failure by government to effectively respond to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Today I want to publicly and boldly dispel such notions,” he said. The country has seen a spike of infections since the easing of the lockdown regulations which, he added, could not be in place “forever”. Experts have warned that the country will see an increase in the number of cases, and Mkhize has expressed similar sentiments. “All indications are, as a country, we may be riding right into that storm whose devastating impact is expected to peak during the cold winter months. The rising numbers may be an indication that such a reality is now with us.
SA recorded its first confirmed case on March 5, when a 38-year-old male who had travelled to Italy with his wife tested positive. Less than a month later, on March 27, two deaths were reported – the first fatalities from the respiratory illness. “As we reached the tail end of the level 5 restrictions, we started seeing some small outbreaks in the supermarkets [and] grocery stores in the Western Cape,” he said.
“I don’t fully understand why it didn’t grow as fast in Gauteng, especially given that there is an international airport, and there are a lot of international travellers. But it looks like some of the steps that were taken were quite effective in terms of reaching out, doing contact tracing, putting up quarantine sites.”
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