Cape Town - South Africa now has 402 confirmed cases of Covid-19, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement on Monday.
This means there has been an increase of 128 from Sunday night’s announcement.
Mkhize further revealed that the Northern Cape has its first confirmed cases.
"As has been announced, His Excellency, President MC Ramaphosa will address the nation on measures to be undertaken to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. We will thereafter engage the public to give further details and explanations on the results including the significant rise, the ongoing testing processes, each province’s progress on contact tracing efforts," the statement said.
Mkhize said that their priority is for provinces to be alerted of new confirmed cases so that immediate contact can be made with the these new patients and ensure that contact tracing starts.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to address the nation on Monday evening as pressure mounts on the government to put in place more stringent measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The last time Ramaphosa addressed the nation a week ago he declared a national disaster in response to the surging numbers. This decision led to several regulations being implemented by the government to control public gatherings.
Some of these restrictions included minimising gatherings to only 100 or fewer people, schools have closed and no alcohol can be sold after 6 pm on weekdays and 1 pm on Sunday and public holidays.
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