Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa has risen to 1462 while the number of deaths remains at 5.

This is an increase of 82 cases from Thursday’s announcement of 1380.

Mkhize made the announcement on Thursday evening in Bloemfontein.

He says officials are still waiting on clarification on reports that there have been two more deaths as a result of COVID-19.

Gauteng has the most infections with 663, followed by the Western Cape at 353, KwaZulu-Natal 206, Free State 84, North West 9, Mpumalanga 13, Limpopo 16, Eastern Cape 17, Northern Cape 7 and unallocated infections 94.

Mkhize says while the number of infections have increased, there is a restraint in the number of cases.

“There is a restraint in the numbers which we think is the impact of the lockdown, the fact that we have closed the borders and so there’s not a lot of movement, people coming from outside. The fact that people are in their homes, means also there’s not a lot of mixing up of people in large volumes and large numbers when we don’t have the crowds.”

Mkhize however says its still very early days.

“We are only just starting and our current projections are indicating that we need to still get out and go and find more and more of the people who could be positive in the community.”

Mkhize says South Africans can fight the COVID-19 infection, defeat it and flatten the curve by reducing the rapid rate of the spread in the country.

Faizel Patel

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)