South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Thursday expressed concern over the increase in local transmissions of the coronavirus in the country.
The minister said this as the number of cases increased by 27 to 1,380 overnight.
Gauteng Province, the country’s most industrialised region and home to Johannesburg, has so far registered the most cases at 645, according to the minister.
He was speaking in Johannesburg while inspecting 60 mobile coronavirus testing units, which the National Health Laboratory has procured to be sent to district municipalities and metros in readiness for next week’s door-to-door testing exercise.
Mkhize said the distribution of the equipment followed President Cyril Ramaphosa announcement this week that his government would intensify efforts to screen and test South Africans in densely populated areas like Soweto.
Part of this initial mass screening exercise kicked off in Alexandra Township in Soweto on Wednesday, where residents from the densely populated area lined up to be tested for the virus.
The country has so far lost five lives since the first cases of coronavirus were detected in early March when involved locals who had gone to Italy on holiday returned home contaminated.
The current virus transmissions, however, have come from locals who have not been overseas to other local residents – leading the minister to express concern over the daily rise incases of the disease.
NM/jn/APA