CONFIRMED CORONAVIRUS CASES IN TEMBISA

As at today, 14 April 2020, South Africa has 2,415 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with a total of 27 deaths. Gauteng Province is the province with the highest number of people with the coronavirus in South Africa at 909.

The City of Johannesburg is the epicenter of the virus and has the highest number of cases in the province. The Johannesburg Metropolitan area had 467 as at Sunday, 12 April 2020. The National Department of Health (DoH) has made public it’s geomapping analysis presented to the Parliamentary Health Portfolio Committee by the Director-General of the DoH, Anban Pillay, on the 10th of April 2020.

The presentation is the most detailed official analysis yet of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country and zooms in to cities and towns in all the provinces. According to the map, Gauteng’s rich suburbs in the north of Johannesburg like Sandton, Randburg and surrounding areas show the highest concentration of cases in the country.

Geomap of confirmed cases as at 10 April 2020.
Source – National Department of Health presentation to Parliamentary Health Portfolio Committee.

On the map, the Tembisa area can be seen to have 4 red dots which translates to 4 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Tembisa is one of the areas that the Department of Health has identified for mass screening. Today, the Ekurhuleni Health District conducted mass screening in Olifanstfontein Telkom and Tembisa SAPS (Rabasotho). Last week screening was done at Phumulani Mall, Winnie Mandela Taxi Rank, Mega City and Clayville.

A total of 87,022 tests have been conducted nationwide. In a government presentation last night it was revealed that South Africa has approximately 28,00 health workers going house to house in vulnerable communities for screening and testing to find cases. A concern was raised that “we might be missing cases in poor communities due to skewed higher private lab testing”.

Vulnerable areas like Ivory Park, Tembisa, Alexandra and Diepsloot have been flagged as areas of concern by the government due to non compliance of the lockdown regulations.