Covid-19 Pandemic In South Africa: Details of ongoing viral outbreak in South Africa
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed by Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize to have spread to South Africa on 5 March 2020.
The first known case was a South African returning from Italy.
| COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa | |
|---|---|
 Map with number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per province. | |
 Map with number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths per province. | |
| Disease | Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) |
| Virus strain | Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) |
| Location | South Africa |
| First outbreak | Wuhan, Hubei, China 30°35′14″N 114°17′17″E / 30.58722°N 114.28806°E |
| Index case | Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal |
| Arrival date | 1 March 2020 (4 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 3 days ago) |
| Confirmed cases | 734175 (as of 6 November 2020[update]) |
| Recovered | 675593 (as of 6 November 2020[update]) |
Deaths | 19749 (as of 6 November 2020[update]) |
| Government website | |
| sacoronavirus | |
Response
On 15 March, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, declared a national state of disaster, and announced measures like travel restrictions and the closure of schools from 18 March.
On 17 March, Ramaphosa formed the National Command Council on COVID-19, "to lead the nation's plan to contain the spread and mitigate the negative impact of the coronavirus".
The parliament of South Africa suspended all activities on 18 March. Both the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance postponed their respective elective congresses.
On 23 March, a national lockdown was announced, starting on 26 March 2020. On 9 April, Ramaphosa announced that it would be extended until the end of April.
On 21 April, a 500 billion rand stimulus was announced in response to the pandemic.
On 23 April, Ramaphosa announced that the lockdown restrictions would slowly be phased out. Level 4 started on 1 May. On 1 June, the country entered level 3.
Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, extended the state of disaster on 3 June. It ended on 4 July.
Testing
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) started testing people in South Africa for SARS-CoV-2 on 28 January 2020.
By the middle of March, state hospitals were offering free COVID-19 testing.
On 11 June, the Health Department said that over 1 million tests had been completed.
Numbers
As of 27 April 2020[update], the median age of people with laboratory-confirmed cases was 38 years, and as of 2 May 2020[update] the median age of patients who died was 64.
As of 12 July 2020[update], there were 276242 confirmed cases and 4079 confirmed deaths, as well as 134874 recoveries.
As of 6 November 2020[update], there were 734175 confirmed cases and 19749 confirmed deaths, as well as 675593 recoveries.
References
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