This archive report was first published on 20 May 2020.
As of May 20, 2020, South Africa has recorded 17,200 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 312 deaths, with the Western Cape province accounting for 60% of the national cumulative cases.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has come under fire from the opposition for what they deem as harsh lockdown restrictions, but the minister insists that the measure has effectively stalled the exponential spread of the coronavirus.
"Had we done nothing, estimates show that by this point, as many as 80,000 South Africans would have been infected, and nearly 2,000 of our brothers and sisters would have lost their lives," Mkhize said, citing scientific models and estimates.
The minister warned against ending the lockdown abruptly, saying that if people are allowed to flood back to the way life was before, infections would surge, effectively undoing everything that has been sacrificed thus far.
Instead, Mkhize proposed a district-based approach, where different areas will experience different levels of lockdown, according to their level of transmission.
"Our mortality rate of 1.8 per cent remains well below the global average, which is currently 6.6 per cent, and our recovery rate is 42.4 per cent, which is above the global average," Mkhize said.
