SA's Covid-19 cases up more than 700 for the first time, 13 deaths recorded

The number of South Africans who have died of Covid-19 stood at 219 on Wednesday, said President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The number of confirmed infections was 12,074. This was an increase of 724 cases and 13 deaths. There were 4,745 confirmed recoveries.

Ramaphosa said that, without the lockdown, studies showed that at least 80,000 South Africans could have been infected by now and the death toll could have been “eight times higher”.

The level of coronavirus infections is around 181 people per million of the population

This is according to Ramaphosa, who was addressing South Africans on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said there were 11,350 cases across the country, with more than half (6,105) coming from the Western Cape.

On Wednesday, the minister confirmed that more than 600 of the new cases came from the Western Cape.

The provincial breakdown of new cases and total cases on Wednesday was provided as:

• Western Cape — 608 new cases, 6,713 total cases;
• Gauteng — 61 new, 2,074 total;
• KwaZulu-Natal — 19 new, 1,413 total;
• Eastern Cape — 30 new, 1,534 total; 
• Free State — 2 new, 138 total;
• Mpumalanga — 3 new, 66 total;
• Limpopo — 0 new, 54 total;
• North West — 1 new, 52 total; and
• Northern Cape — 0 new, 30 total.

The provincial breakdown of deaths and recoveries was provided as:

• Western Cape — 117 deaths, 1,950 recoveries;
• KwaZulu-Natal — 44 deaths, 618 recoveries;
• Gauteng — 24 deaths, 1,343 recoveries;
• Eastern Cape — 24 deaths, 632 recoveries;
• Free State — 6 deaths, 107 recoveries;
• Limpopo — 3 deaths, 30 recoveries;
• North West — 1 death, 24 recoveries;
• Mpumalanga — 0 deaths, 24 recoveries; and
• Northern Cape — 0 deaths, 17 recoveries.