South Africa

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

South African Covid-19 cases shoot up to 402

South African Covid-19 cases shoot up to 402
Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize. (Photo: Gallo Images / Phill Makagoe)

The number of Covid-19 cases in South Africa increased overnight by 128, according to a statement by the Minister of Health. The department has not published travel histories for the new cases, saying that they will explain the sharp increase after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Monday night.

The number of positive Covid-19 cases has increased by 128 to 402 between Sunday 22 March and Monday 23 March, the Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, announced on Monday afternoon. 

He said the reasons for the sharp increase will be shared with South Africans after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address that has been scheduled for Monday night.

The Northern Cape has also had its first confirmed cases with two patients testing positive.

Gauteng still has the most cases with 207 and the Western Cape 100. KwaZulu-Natal has 60 cases, Limpopo and North West four each, Mpumalanga nine and the Free State 13. One case has been marked as “unknown” as Mkhize said they were still following up on details.

According to the statement, the department is placing a high priority on notifying provinces of new cases so that patients can be found and contact tracing can start as soon as possible.

The highest number of cases were recorded for the 31-40 age group (69) and the 51-60 group (63).

The department has not published travel histories for the new cases. According to the travel ban announced by Ramaphosa on 18 March these are the US, the UK, several countries in the European Union, Iran, South Korea and China. DM

Gallery

"Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email [email protected]"

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.