CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
Local transmission of Covid-19 increases in South Africa
The Ministry of Health confirmed on Wednesday morning that there are 31 new cases of Covid-19 in South Africa, bringing the total number of cases to 116. Of those new confirmed infections, six are local transmissions.
Gauteng has confirmed 16 new cases of Covid-19, the youngest being a three-year-old male and the oldest being a 71-year-old female. Neither has an international travel history. The province has four cases with no international travel history.
KwaZulu-Natal has three news cases, all males above the age of 50 who travelled to Italy and Austria.
Mpumalanga has two new cases – that of a 64-year-old male who travelled to Italy and a 56-year-old female who has no international travel history.
The Western Cape has confirmed 10 new cases, the youngest being a two-year-old male who travelled to New Zealand and the oldest being a 68-year-old male with no international travel history. This was the only case of local transmission in the province.
The health department has tracked information from the local transmission cases who tested positive as to how they might have been infected. It will relay this information to the public to provide understanding of how these transmissions happen.
On the evening of 17 March the ministry announced that there were a total of 85 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country, with eight the result of local transmission. It was an increase of 23 from the day before.
It confirmed that so far, none of the South Africans repatriated from Wuhan have tested positive for Covid-19. They remain in quarantine. DM
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