He was addressing the media at Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein with the Covid-19 task team along with the Premier, Sisi Ntombela, and MEC for Health Montsheng Tsiu. He says he was impressed with how the tracker team was able to track about 1700 contacts of people who might have been in contact with Covid-19 positive patients in the province. He adds that 1600 of those tests have already been done and they are now rounding up a small number of those contacts. He also reiterated that Mangaung, which includes Bloemfontein, is an area of concern due to the nature of how the infection spread - stemming from a church gathering.

"This means these are people who had prolonged exposure within close proximity. We expect more people would have been infected in that kind of situation," he adds. 

Meanwhile, the national institute of communicable diseases (NICD) says the number of infections continues to grow. The communicable diseases centre says it encourages individuals to take responsibility for measures, such as regular hygiene practices, isolation and social distancing.

Mkhize says so far 1462 people have tested positive, with 47 965 tests conducted countrywide. He was briefing the media while in Bloemfontein. Mkhize said so far 45 people recovered from the virus. He adds due to the 21 day national lock-down there is a restraint in the number of infections in the country. This, after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) raised a concern with internal or local transmission of the virus in the country. Mkhize says so far five deaths have been reported and they are further waiting for clarification and verification on two more deaths.

OFM News