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COVID-19: Gauteng surpasses 100,000 cases

todayJuly 14, 2020 18

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Gauteng has become the first province to record 100,000 cases of COVID-19 in the country.

This comes after 5,282 new cases of the disease were reported in the province in a single day. By Monday, 13 July 2020, the national count had reached 287,796 with 11,555 new infections recorded.

93 deaths were also reported, bringing the country’s death toll to 4,172. However, there have been 138,241 recoveries.

“The real issue in Gauteng – even before the numbers were higher than those in the Western Cape – was the pattern in which the increase was happening”, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said, in response to the province’s alarming figures.

Mkhize led a briefing of Social Cluster ministers who were giving clarity on the newly-amended lockdown regulations which were announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday 12 July.

“Gauteng moved from a very low number. At the beginning of June, they had about 230 positive patients recorded per day. By the time they got towards the end of the month, they were at 3,000 to 4,000 people per day turning out to be positive”, he said.

“The sudden increase in a short space of time is what really jacked the system in Gauteng.”

A total of 2 194 624 Covid-19 tests have been conducted across the country to date, of which 40 233 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Mkhize further highlighted that others may not be taking the Coronavirus as seriously as they’re supposed to.

 

“It is a new, painful reality that we can only curb these viral infections if we as citizens behave. It’s a choice we have to make as South Africans – for the sake of our own nation, our own friends, our own selves”, he said.

 

“It is important to indicate that we need everyone to begin to take responsibility and to change behaviour.”

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