Thu 16 July 2020:
Country reported 107 COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, 12,757 new infections
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa passed the 300,000 mark late Wednesday, after 12,757 new cases were reported in that last 24 hours bringing the total to 311,049.
South Africa has the highest number of COVID-19 infections on the continent and is the eighth most affected country globally in terms of caseloads.
The rainbow nation surpassed the United Kingdom, Spain and Iran in infection rates but has low mortality figures compared to the trio.
South Africa’s health minister said the number of deaths is at 4,453 and recoveries is 160,693.
South Africa has conducted 2.2 million tests for the virus since it was first detected in the country nearly four months ago with 45,389 conducted in the past 24 hours.
Health officials expect an increase in infections as the country is currently in its winter season known for the influenza virus.
In many parts of the country, COVID-19 wards are packed, so patients are spilling out into other bits of hospitals and into tents outside, health officials say.
At public hospitals, which were struggling with capacity anyway, medics have complained about a lack of staff and protective equipment.
“Not enough health workers have been hired, our requests for PPE have been ignored, guidelines are not being followed,” said Sibongiseni Delihlazo, spokesman for the main nurses’ union.
Gauteng, the province at the epicentre and home to the biggest city, Johannesburg, is adding beds, setting up field hospitals, and boosting numbers of medical workers, said Kwara Kekana, a spokeswoman for the provincial health department.
Job losses pile up
About half of South Africans live in poverty, and about a third are unemployed – some 3 million have lost their jobs since the lockdown began. Women accounted for two million jobs lost, according to a study by South Africa’s Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) released on Tuesday.
“The coronavirus pandemic is the largest social and economic shock in our lifetime. The rapid spread of this virus around the world and the economic devastation it has left in its wake is unlike anything we have seen before, at least not in our lifetimes,” principle investigator Nic Spaull, said in the foreword of the synopsis report.
A significant number of those who became unemployed over the period do not receive grant income, the study indicated. “Approximately 30% of those who were retrenched between February and April report no household-level grant protection at all,” the report read.
A separate report specifically on the labour market and poverty impacts of Covid-19 indicates that approximately one million of those who lost their jobs fell into poverty as a result. “Indirectly, accounting for the dependents of these workers, we tentatively estimate that this job loss has increased poverty by about 3 million people,” the executive summary of the report read.
President Ramaphosa was speaking with communities during the second Covod-19 presidential imbizo on Wednesday night.
He said the national lockdown he imposed had brought economic activity of the country to a standstill and this had a lasting negative effect on businesses, which were forced to close their doors.
“Companies thrive by being involved in their own commercial or economic operations and these had stopped. That stop meant that they lost revenue.
“Workers had lost income and that is why we came up with the R500 billion assistance package, both for ordinary people at a social level as well as an economic package,” Ramaphosa said.
He said despite the assistance, some companies would nonetheless close down.
“We know that, as it is happening all over the world. This is not just a problem unique to SA,” he said.
He said the government had come up with plans to mitigate the damage, including setting aside R100 billion for job protection and creation.
“We are working on a massive job creation process through our infrastructure projects as well as more direct public employment. So we are responding because the job losses are going to be massive.
“Not everyone will be covered but we are going to make every effort to ensure that those who have lost jobs are able to be part of the interventions,” Ramaphosa said.
He said the government was also working with business and labour to explore opportunities presented by the Covid-19 as well as devise “a very clearly articulated recovery plan” for the country.
