Coronavirus: South Africa records 20th Covid-19 death

11 Avril 2020

Cape Town, South Africa, April 11 (Infosplusgabon) – South Africa’s coronavirus death toll on Friday hit the 20 mark with the number of confirmed cases rising to more than 2,000.

This was confirmed by Health minister Zweli Mkhize who said Gauteng province has the highest rate with 801 cases, followed by the Western Cape with 541 and KwaZulu-Natal has 412 cases.

He said most of the fatalities were patients with pre-existing conditions and the real cause of their deaths may have been those conditions even though they also caught the virus.

The good news is that Mkhize believes South Africa is “bucking the trend” because there hasn’t been a dramatic spike in infections since the first case was reported five weeks ago.

In addition, the three week lockdown - which was extended by a further two weeks on Thursday -  has slowed the spread of Covid-19 dramatically.

He said the authorities have managed to "disrupt" transmissions from a daily increase of about 40% before the lockdown to just 4% after. "Anyone who doubted the lockdown should now be convinced," Mkhize said.

He further announced that the St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban where several nurses and patients were infected has been closed.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/AGB/GABON2020

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