COVID-19 WRAP | SA cases up to 48,285 as global death toll passes 400,000

TOP STORIES | 

- 95% of schools ready to reopen on Monday: Angie Motshekga

- 'High-handed' approach to smoking ban turning people against lockdown: Fita

- 419 people hospitalised with Covid-19 in Gauteng, death toll nears 50

- Majority of KZN's Covid-19 cases are people aged between 25 and 39

June 7 2020 - 21:55

SA death toll increases to 998

Mpumalanga has recorded its first Covid-19 death, meaning that every single province in SA now has at least one fatality from the respiratory illness.

The death was confirmed in a statement from health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Sunday night.

There are now 998 confirmed deaths, and 48,285 cases across SA.

June 7 2020 - 21:48

June 7 2020 - 18:08

Global virus death toll passes 400,000

The coronavirus pandemic has killed 400,000 people since it emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP tally of official sources at 1430 GMT on Sunday.

A total of 400,052 deaths have now been recorded -- a figure that has doubled in the past month and a half.

While almost half of the deaths have been recorded in Europe (183,428), the United States remains the hardest-hit nation with 109,802 deaths from 1,920,061 cases.

June 7 2020 - 18:08

Zimbabwe searching for more than 100 people who escaped from quarantine facilities

The Zimbabwe government has released a wanted persons list of individuals that escaped from quarantine centres as the country’s Covid-19 positive cases inch closer to 300.

The list has 48 people, some of whom gave fake addresses. Zimbabwe’s information secretary Nick Mangwana said because they broke the law they should be apprehended.

“Absconding from a quarantine centre is breaking the law,” he said.

In total 150 people have escaped from quarantine centres. Only 23 have so far been apprehended and fined R150 (ZW$500).  

June 7 2020 - 16:35

Every school in Free State, Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West ready for pupils on Monday

Basic education director-general Mathanzima Mweli said on Sunday that every single school in fourr of the country's provinces were ready for Monday's reopening.

He said that all the schools in the Free State (1,123 schools), Limpopo (3,711 schools), Northern Cape (556 schools) and North West (1,570 schools) were ready.

In the Western Cape, 1,816 of the 1,819 public schools were ready - while in Gauteng 1,917 of the 2,017 schools were ready. In KZN, 5,957 of the 6,000 schools were ready. And in Mpumalanga, 1,772 of the 1,815 schools were ready.

The Eastern Cape was the least ready of the provinces, with about 400 schools not ready for reopening on Monday. There, 4,660 of the 5,064 public schools were ready. Mweli said water provision was the chief reason for this.

June 7 2020 - 16:10

'95% of our schools are ready': Motshekga

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga said on Sunday that schools would reopen on Monday, as almost off them were ready.

“We can now say with confidence that about 95% of our schools have been ably provided with the Covid-19 related imperatives,” said Motshekga.

She added that the education sector would "strive to deal with the remaining 5% to ensure that the unfettered rights to health, safety and basic education for all South African children are protected".

“The golden rule is [that] there will be no school that will resume, if not ready to do so," she said.

Motshekga said that learners from the “not-so-ready schools” would be accommodated for so that "no child is left behind". This included the possibility of moving them to neighbouring schools which met the health, safety and social distancing measurements and requirements.

She added that help had been sought from, among others, the South African National Defence, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the and Mvula Trust to deal with challenges of water and sanitation in schools.

The transport department was also involved regarding scholar transport to ensure that health and safety requirements are met.

June 7 2020 - 15:51

Level 3 restrictions resulted in 'cluster cases' of the illness, says premier

The majority of Covid-19 positive people in KwaZulu-Natal are aged between 25 and 39.

Premier Sihle Zikalala made the announcement in Durban on Sunday, highlighting the 3,016 confirmed cases, 61 deaths and 1,378 recoveries in the province to date.

June 7 2020 - 15:30

More than 100 KZN schools will not open on Monday

At least 104 schools in KwaZulu-Natal will take a delayed approach to reopening as they are not yet ready.

This was revealed by KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala who, together with education MEC Kwazi Mshengu, addressed the media in Durban on Sunday.

June 7 2020 - 15:24

Johannesburg remains the epicentre of the virus in Gauteng, with 2,732 cases, 22 deaths and 1,391 recoveries.

The total number of people who have died as a result of Covid-19 in Gauteng is 47, while 5,626 are infected, the health department said on Sunday.

Department spokesperson Kwara Kekana said 419 people had been hospitalised by Saturday. This figure had increased by 200 since Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the number of those who had recovered increased to 2,428.

Kekana said a total of 15,897 people who came in contact with those infected had been traced, many of whom have since been cleared of the virus.

June 7 2020 - 15:15

'High-handed' approach to smoking ban turning people against lockdown: Fita

In its latest salvo against the government's continued ban on the sale of tobacco products, the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita) said that the prohibition was turning people against the lockdown.

Responding in court documents to an affidavit from Cogta minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma last week, Fita chair Sinenhlanhla Mnguni said: “The high-handed manner in which this ban is being meted out is concerning and results in citizens losing respect for the process and the wonderfully good intentions with which the lockdown process commenced.”

The affidavit is also critical of Dlamini-Zuma's stance that the ban would make people quit smoking.

June 7 2020 - 14:00

How a Covid-19 vaccine would protect you.

June 7 2020 - 13:35

Extension of national state of disaster

June 7 2020 - 13:31

Schools '94% ready', Motshekga tells unions ahead of schools reopening

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga told teachers' unions and the three major governing body associations on Saturday afternoon that school readiness was at 94%.

This will pave the way for the phasing in of grade 7 and 12 pupils on Monday in eight provinces after pupils were out of school for almost three months. Western Cape schools reopened last Monday.

At 4pm on Sunday, Motshekga was scheduled to address the nation, together with the nine MECs of education, on the state of readiness for the reopening of schools.

June 7 2020 - 12:55

'Unwise' to open churches just yet, says SA Catholic Bishops Conference

Many Catholic churches across SA did not open their doors on Sunday, with the parent body, the SA Catholic Bishops Conference, saying it was “unwise to do so”.

The organisation's spokesperson, Archbishop William Slattery, said it had told bishops in its 26 dioceses across the country they should not open their church doors yet.

Slattery said the elderly and sick would be required to stay at home even after it was deemed safe to resume gatherings.

June 7 2020 - 12:23

Angie Motshekga to brief media on readiness for reopening of schools

June 7 2020 - 12:20

Brazil takes down COVID-19 data, hiding soaring death toll

Brazil removed from public view months of data on its Covid-19 epidemic on Saturday, as President Jair Bolsonaro defended delays and changes to official record-keeping of the world's second-largest coronavirus outbreak.

Brazil's Health Ministry removed the data from a website that had documented the epidemic over time and by state and municipality. The ministry also stopped giving a total count of confirmed cases, which have shot past 672,000 – more than anywhere outside the United States – or a total death toll, which passed Italy this week, nearing 36,000 by Saturday.

June 7 2020 - 12:19

Sanitiser everywhere, but some taxi passengers just don't follow the rules

At Bree taxi rank in Newtown, Johannesburg, a cacophony of engines and hooting drowns out the green-masked marshals enforcing social distancing.

Armed with hand sanitiser, the marshals instruct passengers to stand on the makeshift white painted lines and spray their hands before allowing them to get in the taxi.

On Thursday morning at 7am when TimesLIVE visited the taxi rank, the clinking of coins and baritone voices yelling “sanitiza, sanitiza, ten, ten” are almost in unison with the blaring music coming from every taxi.

June 7 2020 - 9:12

'We will have another family meeting soon': Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africans should expect to be briefed about the developments of lockdown level 3 soon.

He visited the Western Cape on Friday and told journalists that the country will have another "family meeting soon."

"We will have another family meeting soon my fellow South Africans. That will happen, we need to communicate on a regular basis on where we are as a country. We have accumulated enough information now in the past few days since we started with level 3... There will be a family meeting soon."