One in 200 infected with Covid-19 in Cape Town's worst-hit areas
One in 200 people in two areas of Cape Town has been infected with Covid-19, provincial statistics showed on Tuesday.
In Khayelitsha, with a population of 401,000, just over 2,000 people have tested positive. It is just 66 days since the township recorded its first case.
In the neighbouring health sub-district of Klipfontein, which has infection hotspots in Delft, Delft South, Gugulethu, Nyanga and Manenberg, 1,934 residents out of 380,000 have tested positive.
Khayelitsha has 773 active cases (38.6% of the total), while in Klipfontein there are 1,032 active cases (53.4%). The southern sub-district has 1,193 active cases (64.4%), thanks to infection hotspots in Philippi and the Hout Bay suburb of Imizamo Yethu.
Overall, Cape Town had 559 new reported Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total to 13,746, which means the city is home to 87% of infections in the Western Cape and 58% of all infections nationally.
The number of active cases in Cape Town went up by only 40, but this is likely to reflect the backlog of 18,000 test results, which brought a fresh plea to President Cyril Ramaphosa and health minister Zweli Mkhize on Tuesday from premier Alan Winde.
Fifty-two new deaths in the Western Cape brought its total to 357, which is 74% of the national total of 457.
The extent to which the Western Cape is the centre of the country's Covid-19 outbreak is illustrated in a National Institute for Communicable Diseases report based on data from 204 hospitals - 150 private and 54 public nationwide - up to May 24.
The province dominates every category listed, and is responsible for 73% of all patients on ventilators.