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COVID-19 in South Africa: 30th March PM Edition

Before we begin we’d like to take a moment to explain what is happening here.

“Why is a technology news website covering COVID-19 news,” is a question we’re bound to receive so we’re going to address it right here.

Regulations published by Stella Ndabeni-Abraham states that “all internet sites operating within .zaDNA top level domain name must have a landing page with a visible link to www.sacoronavirus.co.za”.

As we fall under that regulation, we are required to link to the Department of Health’s website but we’re taking that a step further.

Every morning and every afternoon we will publish an update regarding COVID-19 in South Africa. For the purpose of these updates we will refer solely to the following sources of information:

We understand that folks are doing amazing things with data-viz and there are comments from experts that can help, but our goal with these updates is to provide you, our reader, with accurate information from trusted sources. If the source is not reliable, it will not be linked here.

We will also be placing a banner on our home page which you can click at any time to be directed to www.sacoronavirus.co.za.

Our latest update follows on below:

As the sun sets on the fourth day of South Africa’s nation-wide lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa capped off the day with an address to the nation.

As many as 1 326 South Africans have tested positive for COVID-19. The president also presented the grave news that three South Africans have died because of the disease.

President Ramaphosa also reiterated that South Africans should not leave their homes for any reason other than to render an essential service, obtain an essential good or service or to seek medicine or medical attention.

“I would like to thank the people of South Africa for acting in a disciplined manner through this very difficult period. We are, however, concerned about those who have not yet appreciated the seriousness of this disease,” said Ramaphosa.

Lockdown is set to last for 17 more days.

As for the self-employed and informal businesses, the president said that additional measures were being developed to provide relief to those business owners.

Government will also be rolling out a testing, screening, tracing and medical management programme on a massive scale. As  many 10 000 field workers will be visiting homes in towns, villages and cities to screen residents for COVID-19 symptoms.

The president said that those who present symptoms will be referred to mobile clinics and clinics for testing. Those with moderate symptoms will be asked to remain in isolation at their homes while those with severe symptoms will be sent to hospital.

The president said that mobile tracing technology will be used to track those who have had contact with those who have tested positive for COVID-19. This technology will also be used to monitor new cases in real time.

The drive is “far reaching and unprecedented in scale” the president said.

We will be sure to explore this in greater depth at a later stage.

The full address to the nation can be viewed in the embedded video below.

As of 30th March, the World Health Organisation reports 693 224 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have sadly been 33 106 deaths caused by the disease.

In order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:

[Image – Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash]

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