Ramaphosa addresses SA on Covid-19

Address comes after cabinet meeting on Sunday afternoon

12 July 2020 - 16:46 By TimesLIVE

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President Cyril Ramaphosa will address SA at 8pm, the Presidency announced on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier, Ramaphosa was in a meeting with his cabinet ahead of the address.

In a statement, the Presidency said the announcement "follows a number of meetings of the cabinet, the National Coronavirus Command Council and the President's Coordinating Council".

Ramaphosa's address comes against a backdrop of heightened fear and anxiety among South Africans after the health department announced on Saturday that the country had recorded 264,184 confirmed cases of Covid-19. This put SA in the global top 10 of infections globally.

SA passed Iran's total of 255,117 cases. There were, by Saturday night, 12,723,268 cases across the globe.

Gauteng has the highest number of cases (93,044), followed by the Western Cape (77,336), the Eastern Cape (48,232) and KwaZulu-Natal (23,753).

In terms of deaths, the Western Cape leads the way with 2,333 fatalities, followed by the Eastern Cape with 664, Gauteng with 580, and KwaZulu-Natal 273.