President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation again on Thursday on government’s plans to gradually lift the
The lockdown in its current format is expected to end next week Thursday.
On Tuesday evening, Ramaphosa announced COVID-19 social relief measures amounting to R50 billion over the next six months.
The President announced a R300 increase to the child support grant in May, as well as an additional top-up of R500 from June until October.
Government will also provide an additional R250 increase for all other social grant beneficiaries.
Ramaphosa announced an overall R500 billion support package for the economy to mitigate against the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHO hails SA
On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) applauded South Africa’s efforts to curb the number of coronavirus infections in the country at their daily briefing in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Head of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Mike Ryan says government’s implementation of an early lockdown has contributed to slowing down the spread of the virus.
Ryan says, “It is interesting in the way in which South Africa is bringing the diseases under control and how Africans in many ways and in some way are showing the way. This strategy in SA was based on preparation of primary prevention lockdown.”
SA’s coronavirus cases
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa has risen to 3 635. The Health Department says the total number of tests conducted to date is 133 774, of which 6 868 were done in the last 24 hours.
Government says they regrettably report seven more COVID-19-related deaths. This increases the total to 65.
Five of them occurred in the Western Cape and two in KwaZulu-Natal.
The government has expressed condolences to the affected families and appreciated the health workers who treated the patients.
The provincial breakdown is as follows: Gauteng 1224, Western Cape 1079, KwaZulu-Natal 758, Eastern Cape 377, Free State 106, Limpopo 27, North West 24, Mpumalanga 23, Northern Cape 16, with 1 unallocated case.
Source: SABCNews
