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:
- National Institute for Communicable Diseases
- Department of Health
- The World Health Organisation
- South African Government
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:
It is day six of the national lockdown, and while we have no clear indication of how it is impacting the country’s attempts to flatten the COVID-19 curve, there has not been a significant increase in the number of confirmed cases.
More specifically the number of cases has risen to 1 380, increasing slightly from the 1 353 from last night. The number of fatalities has also remained steady at five.
The other development worth mentioning is the change to the number of hours that public transport services are able to operate during the lockdown.
To that end, minister of transport, Fikile Mbalula, announced that hours have been extended in the morning in particular, with public transport available for use between 5:00 and 10:00. The afternoon/evening time remains the same, from 16:00 to 20:00.
The same extension applies to ride sharing services like Uber and Bolt.
“We remain in close contact with local public health authorities and will continue to follow their guidance to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19. The health and safety of our community comes first, and we will do our best to support drivers, our community and essential staff during these unprecedented times,” an Uber Spokesperson noted after the announcement.
That’s it for tonight’s update, and as always we’ll be issuing updates throughout the lockdown.
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:
- Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
- COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
- World Health Organisation
- SA Coronavirus website
- SA Government
- SA Presidency
[Image – Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash]
