Gauteng to become SA's Covid-19 hotspot by tonight: Zweli Mkhize

Gauteng will become the country's Covid-19 epicentre by Wednesday night.

This is according to health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, who was addressing the National Assembly on the impact of the coronavirus on SA on Wednesday afternoon.

“We expect that Gauteng will have the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases when we next make the announcement, making it the epicentre in the country," Mkhize said.

He said it was "no longer just announcing the numbers". He said the virus now had a name, face and house address attached to it.

"It is our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, our sisters ... who are infected. It is affecting every part of our lives. The storm we have warned about is now arriving," he said.

Gauteng recorded 4,597 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the provincial government said on Wednesday.

This has taken the number of confirmed cases to 71,488.

Department spokesperson Kwara Kekana said 21,414 people had recovered, while 478 had died.

In total, 36,828 people have been traced after coming into contact with those who tested positive.

Kekana said 23,103 people have completed the 14-day monitoring period with no symptoms reported and are therefore deisolated. 

Currently, 3,167 of people are in private or public hospitals.

Johannesburg has 33,750 infections, 236 deaths and 12,617 recoveries.

Ekurhuleni has 15,807 cases, 79 deaths and 4,417 recoveries.

Tshwane has 11,481 cases, 72 deaths and 2,815 recoveries. 

Sedibeng and the West Rand remain the only districts with less than 5,000 cases and death tolls of lower than 50. 

However, a total of 2,705 cases remain unallocated. 

“Allocating Gauteng cases to respective districts is ongoing. After obtaining further information on contact numbers and addresses from law-enforcement agencies, provincial outbreak teams and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), we are able to make corrections where a case might have been incorrectly allocated to a particular district,” said Kekana.