Deaths, surges and global rankings: Key Covid-19 milestones in SA

More than 200,000 Covid-19 cases and more than 3,000 deaths have been reported in SA since the first case was confirmed on March 5.

Here are some key Covid milestones in SA:

First case

The first case was confirmed after a 38-year-old male, who travelled to Italy with his wife, arrived back in the country on March 1.

The couple was part of a group of 10 people.

The man from KwaZulu-Natal consulted a private general practitioner on March 3 with symptoms of fever, headache, malaise, a sore throat and a cough.

First death

The first death related to Covid-19 was recorded on March 27.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize confirmed the first death occurred in Western Cape. The health ministry originally announced two deaths, but one test result showed negative for the coronavirus.

Lockdown starts

On March 26, SA went into lockdown, which was initially planned for 21 days, to flatten the curve and control the spread of the virus.

More than 100 days later, Covid-19 cases have risen rapidly and the country has seen a surge in “cluster outbreaks”.

The country's Covid-19 infection rate has pushed it into the top 20 of daily increasing numbers recorded among 215 countries battling the pandemic.

Cases surge

The highest SA has ranked on Worldometers was fourth place on June 27 after recording  the highest daily surge since the virus broke out in early March.

Worldometers is a data source that tracks real-time statistics on several topics, including Covid-19. The numbers vary daily as updates continue stream in.

To date, SA has 205,721 confirmed cases and 3,310 deaths.

Here are key milestones in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in SA.

Confirmed cases

• March 5 — 1 
• April 5 — 1,655 
• May 5 — 7,572
• June 5 — 43,434 
• July 5 — 196,750 

Confirmed deaths

• March 27 — 1 
• April 27 — 90 
• May 27 — 552 
• June 27 — 2,413

Provinces with most cases 

• Western Cape — 70,938
• Gauteng — 66,891
• Eastern Cape — 38,081
• KwaZulu-Natal — 15,819
• North West — 6,410
• Free State — 2,804
• Mpumalanga — 2,173
• Limpopo — 1,785
• Northern Cape — 820

Provinces with most deaths

• Western Cape — 2,101
• Eastern Cape — 528
• Gauteng — 403
• KwaZulu-Natal — 183
• North West — 36
• Limpopo — 27
• Free State — 19
• Mpumalanga — 7
• Northern Cape — 6