South Africa’s number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has increased from 1187 to 1280 and the disease has claimed the life of a 74-year-old KwaZulu- Natal man bringing the number of Covid-19 fatalities to two.
This was announced by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize in a statement on Sunday night. Mkhize said the deceased had been on a ventilator at a private hospital in a central KwaZulu-Natal town.
“He had travelled to Kruger National Park with his family and came back with flu-like symptoms. He was confirmed Covid-19 positive on March 27 2020,” said Mkhize.
He said the man had an “underlying skin cancer condition [melanoma], which had already complicated”.
“He presented with the following symptoms: respiratory distress, shortness of breath, cardiac failure, decreased saturation and his temperature was above 38 degrees.”
The man’s family and 14 health workers – including three specialist doctors – who were in contact with him are in quarantine and being monitored.
Mkhize confirmed that the number of positive Covid-19 cases in the country had increased by 93 since Saturday’s figures were released.
Of those 584 were in Gauteng, 310 in the Western Cape, 167 in KwaZulu-Natal and 72 in the Free State. There were also 100 “unallocated” cases.
On Saturday Mkhize said several nurses and doctors were infected by the disease.
“We have noted with concern a number of confirmed Covid-19 cases of health workers who work both in the private and public hospitals. This includes doctors and nurses. We mention this because health workers are in the frontline of this battle.”
The provincial breakdown of confirmed cases is:
Gauteng — 533
Western Cape — 271
KwaZulu-Natal — 156
Free State — 68
North West — 6
Mpumalanga — 10
