Before we begin we’d like to take a moment to explain what is happening here.
“Why is a technology news website covering COVID-19 news,” is a question we’re bound to receive so we’re going to address it right here.
Regulations published by Stella Ndabeni-Abraham states that “all internet sites operating within .zaDNA top level domain name must have a landing page with a visible link to www.sacoronavirus.co.za”.
As we fall under that regulation, we are required to link to the Department of Health’s website but we’re taking that a step further.
Every morning and every afternoon we will publish an update regarding COVID-19 in South Africa. For the purpose of these updates we will refer solely to the following sources of information:
- National Institute for Communicable Diseases
- Department of Health
- The World Health Organisation
- South African Government
We understand that folks are doing amazing things with data-viz and there are comments from experts that can help, but our goal with these updates is to provide you, our reader, with accurate information from trusted sources. If the source is not reliable, it will not be linked here.
We will also be placing a banner on our home page which you can click at any time to be directed to www.sacoronavirus.co.za.
Our latest update follows on below:
Day six of the 21 day lockdown in South Africa has dawned and infections of COVID-19 remain at 1 353 following yesterday evening’s report.
In terms of provincial breakdown, COVID-19 infections are spread throughout South Africa as follows:
Gauteng – 633
Western Cape – 325
KwaZulu-Natal – 179
Free State – 74
North West – 8
Mpumalanga – 12
Limpopo – 14
Eastern Cape – 12
Northern Cape – 6
Unallocated – 90
Tuesday also saw government deploy 10 000 field workers throughout South Africa to conduct door-to-door screening in vulnerable communities.
“I must emphasize that they will be conducting screening and not tests: the field workers will not conduct any tests but will refer any persons suspected of having Coronavirus to the nearest CHC, clinic or hospital. I also want to emphasize that, at this stage, only PCR tests will be conducted at health care facilities,” minister of health, Zweli Mkhize said in a statement.
The plan was to visit 10 houses per hour and we should know whether that goal was met later today.
The health minister also reaffirmed the fact that field workers, frontline workers and any workers coming into contact with COVID-19 patients have been provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
As for shortages of PPE, government is working with businesses to address the shortage.
“Although we know there is a global crisis of PPE shortage, we have been very hard at work as a department and as a global community, partnering with business, to secure the availability of PPE’s during this time of need. We have heard the concerns of our health care workers and engaged Unions on this matter. We wish to reassure our valued health professionals that their safety is in the forefront of our agenda as we cannot afford to lose one health care worker to COVID-19 or any disease for that matter,” said Mkhize.
The minister urged South Africans who are not employed by essential services to remain at home and continue practicing good hygiene.
The only reason you should be out of your home is to render an essential service, purchase food or other essential goods or to seek medical attention.
On the note of food, it’s highly recommended that you sanitise your groceries just in case. This video from Dr Jeffery VanWingen goes through a great method of cleaning your groceries and avoiding infection.
In order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:
- Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
- COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
- World Health Organisation
- SA Coronavirus website
- SA Government
- SA Presidency
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
