President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday urged South Africans to prepare for the worst in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic as the country continued with a six-week-long nationwide lockdown.
According to the president, the worst was yet to come in the spread of the pandemic which first hit the country in the first week of March.
Visiting health workers and hospitals in the eastern KwaZulu Natal Province, Ramaphosa said he was afraid that “we have to plan for the worst because we have been informed that the worst is still coming.”
“We are going to have more people infected (in the days to come). But the most important thing is that we should ensure that we lessen the pace through which these infections are set to take place,” Ramaphosa said.
He said South Africans would only be able to contain the spread of the virus “by getting ready with all these facilities and by ensuring that there continues to be social distancing and people continue to wash their hands regularly.”
Ramaphosa praised the provincial leadership of Premier Sihle Zikalala for its handling of the pandemic in KwaZulu Natal, saying that he saw that the regional government had good structures and facilities in place to deal with the disease.
In KwaZulu Natal to assess the province’s response to COVID-19, the president noted that the region was third in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases (1,106) in the country – surpassed by Western Cape Province (3,362) and Gauteng Province’s 1,661 cases, respectively.
South Africa has 7,220 confirmed cases, resulting in 138 deaths since March when the country learnt of the pandemic that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 before hitting the world stage.
NM/jn/APA