BizHealthcare - 29 April 2020
"The nationwide lockdown has dramatically flattened South Africa's Covid-19 curve, allowing the country time to reinforce its healthcare infrastructure, Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize said in a technical briefing.
He warned that the lockdown has not ended new infections, it has, however, significantly delayed the peak of the virus. The health department’s epidemiologists have considered three scenarios, which included “nothing being done”. Under this scenario, the virus would have peaked in July. With a three-week lockdown, the virus would have peaked in August. With a five-week lockdown, the peak has been staved off until September.
“The further two weeks (of the lockdown) added another advantage. It allowed us to ramp up the machinery of the health services to the point where we could increase the number of testing,” he said.
The lockdown is being eased based on scientific projections and calculations stating that a Level 5 lockdown would be of no further benefit “The (epidemiologists’) model shows that even if we made the lockdown longer, it would have not put down the curve further than what it is.”
The numbers
While the number of confirmed cases stands at 4,996, with 93 deaths, the good news is that 2,073 people have recovered.
Since 6 March, the country has conducted 185,497 tests. During this period, over six-million people have been screened for symptoms and have had temperature checks. During this process, 11,000 were referred for Covid-19 tests.
Between 6 and 12 March, the country had done 413 tests. The tests doubled the following week, steadily increasing over the subsequent weeks to the extent of 25,000 tests done in the past week."
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