The Gauteng Health Department has attributed the increase in active cases to people ignoring social distancing and choosing not to wear masks.
FILE: A City of Tshwane Health official takes a nasal swab to test for the COVID-19 coronavirus on a taxi operator at the Bloed Street Mall in Pretoria Central Business District, on 11 June 2020. Picture: AFP
JOHANNESBURG – The Gauteng Health Department is concerned about a 6% increase in active COVID-19 cases in the province in the space of just one week.
Last week Monday, the entire country moved down to level one lockdown which allowed for the relaxation of regulations and provided for greater freedom of movement.
Gauteng is responsible for the largest portion of COVID-19 cases in the country, with more than 32%.
Total number of #COVID19 cases in SA is 671 669 with 903 new cases. Total number of tests done is 4 152 480 with 9 014 new tests done. Number of new deaths is 188. Total number of deaths is 16 586. Number of recoveries is 604 478 which translates to a recovery rate of 90% pic.twitter.com/sWRF9x1Yok
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) September 28, 2020
In just the last week, Gauteng has seen an increase of around 1,700 new COVID-19 cases.
The Gauteng Health Department has attributed the increase in active cases to people ignoring social distancing and choosing not to wear masks.
Tshwane has seen the largest number of active coronavirus cases in the last week, with more than 500 people testing positive.
Johannesburg has recorded more than 270 new cases over the same period.
The Gauteng Health Department said that it was monitoring hot spot areas in the province which contributed to the 6% increase in active COVID-19 cases recorded over the last week.
Acting Gauteng Health MEC Jacob Mamabolo has urged residents to be more cautious.
“We must not at any given time lower our guard, so we’re really pleading with the people in the province, let us keep to the best practices in the province that helped us to reach this point where we are an make sure that we contain what could potentially be a gradual increase in the numbers.”
