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Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize says the government will review lockdown restrictions in South Africa as the country sees an increase in Covid-19 infections.
On Wednesday (December 23), the country reported 14,046 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the accumulated cases in the country to 954,258. An additional 411 deaths related to Covid-19 were reported.
Mkhize said that the coronavirus continues to spread in the country exponentially and that the rate of spread is much faster than the first wave that hit the country.
“We must warn South Africans that we will have to review the current restrictions and consider new measures to ensure that this alarming rate of spread is curbed,” he said.
Mkhize said that all provinces, with the exception of the Eastern Cape, continue to report an increase in their number of cases. KZN, Western Cape and Gauteng reported the largest increase in cases today, comprising 81% of all new cases reported.
“Therefore, it will be important for us to assess the situation, identify the hotspots in these areas, and make recommendations based on these findings and the results of what has been implemented in the hotspots that have been identified so far,” said Mkhize. .
Today we report, with concern, a cumulative total of 954 258 cases of # COVID-19, with 14 046 new
cases identified since the last report with a positivity rate of 26%. pic.twitter.com/uVCn0YfEeO– Dr. Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) December 23, 2020
The warning comes after the UK government announced new travel restrictions for South Africa due to the detection of a second variant of Covid-19 in the country.
In a statement on Wednesday (December 23), UK Health and Welfare Secretary Matt Hancock said that the restrictions would take effect immediately and that flights to South Africa would be stopped. He added that anyone in the UK who has been to South Africa in the past two weeks must immediately self-quarantine.
“As part of our surveillance, and thanks to the impressive genomic capabilities of South Africans, we have detected two cases of another new coronavirus variant here in the UK.
“They are both case contacts who have traveled from South Africa in recent weeks,” he said.
Hancock said the UK was grateful to the South African government for the rigor of its science and the openness and transparency with which it has acted.
“This new variant is very concerning because it is even more transmissible and appears to have mutated more than the new variant that has been discovered here,” he said.
Read: Cape Town should reach the peak of the second wave Covid-19 within the next month: premier
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