This week an annual event has been highlighted as a potential super spreader when it comes to COVID-19 in South Africa – Matric Rage. As for why the week-long event is still planned to happen remains unclear, especially as enforcing lockdown restrictions and regulations would prove extremely difficult.
“We confirm that we have now identified a number of COVID-19 confirmed cases arising from these super-spreader events. This therefore means that if you attended any of these Rage events , you are now regarded as a contact,” explained the National Department of Health (NDoH) on its Matric Rage stance.
“We now urge all the Rage attendees to immediately go into a 10 day quarantine period as per the Department of Health Guidelines on Quarantine and Isolation. We also urge that all Rage attendants test for COVID-19,” it added.
Whether some measures will be taken, remains to be seen, but either way the upcoming festive season will likely see a significant rise in the number of COVID-19 cases throughout the country.
As such, we may see more hotspots like Nelson Mandela Bay manifest as a result.
Shifting to the latest report from the NDoH on COVID-19 in South Africa, it confirms that 3 313 new cases have been reported over the past 24 hours. This brings the total for the country to date to 817 878, 745 750 recoveries also being reported.
Unfortunately 43 new fatalities have been recorded too, pushing the total number of deaths related to COVID-19 to 22 249. Of the new 43, the Western Cape accounts for the most at 26, although the Eastern Cape’s numbers have not been added at the time of writing.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa, sans updated recoveries and active cases, is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 141 296 | 120 128 | 21 168 | 4 820 |
Eastern Cape | 138 020 | 122 078 | 15 942 | 4 978 |
Northern Cape | 23 462 | 20 998 | 2 859 | 326 |
Free State | 59 386 | 51 878 | 7 508 | 1 995 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 131 725 | 119 138 | 12 587 | 3 393 |
North West | 35 104 | 33 834 | 1 270 | 566 |
Mpumalanga | 31 773 | 30 706 | 1 067 | 617 |
Gauteng | 238 256 | 229 041 | 9 215 | 5 042 |
Limpopo | 18 856 | 17 949 | 907 | 512 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 817 878 | 745 750 | 72 128 | 22 249 |
As always, 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 – United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash]