Staff Reporter
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed confidence the national lockdown has helped slow down the spread of COVID-19 as the increase in the number of confirmed cases has slowed down in recent weeks.
“Since the lockdown came into effect, the rate at which new cases have been identified here in South Africa has slowed significantly,” he said in a televised national address on Thursday night in which he also announced the extension of the lockdown by a further two weeks to end on April 30.
“While it is too early to make a definitive analysis of the progression of the disease in South Africa, there is sufficient evidence to show that the lockdown is working.
“From 1 170 confirmed cases on the 27th of March, the number of confirmed cases today stands at 1 934.”
The president said in the two weeks before the lockdown, the average daily increase in new cases was around 42 percent but since the start of the lockdown, the rate of new cases has been growing at a daily average of four percent.
“While we recognise the need to expand testing to gain a better picture of the infection rate, this represents real progress,” he explained.
“The measures we have taken – such as closing our borders and prohibiting gatherings – as well as the changes that we have each had to make in our own behaviour have definitely slowed the spread of the virus.”
Ramaphosa said South Africa was only at the beginning of a monumental struggle that demands every resource and every effort as the struggle against the coronavirus is far from over.
“We cannot relax. We cannot be complacent. In the coming weeks and months, we must massively increase the extent of our response and expand the reach of our interventions,” he stressed.
Globally, the coronavirus pandemic has worsened since South Africa went into lockdown two weeks ago.
At that time, there were 340 000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the world but there are now over 1.5 million confirmed cases.
Over 90 000 people across the world have died from the disease and health systems of many countries have been overwhelmed.
“Even the most developed economies in the world have not had the means to treat the many thousands who have fallen ill. They have struggled to find the medical supplies and personnel necessary to deal with the pandemic. The devastating effect of this is that many people have died,” Ramaphosa said.
“It confirms that our decision to declare a national state of disaster and to institute a nationwide lockdown was correct and it was timely.”