GAUTENG ACCOUNTS FOR MORE THAN HALF OF CORONAVIRUS CASES

Of the 202 confirmed Covoid-19 cases in South Africa. Gauteng province accounts for more than 50% with 109 confirmed cases. In Gauteng, the City of Johannesburg is the municipality with the highest infection rate at 57 confirmed cases. Jozi accounts for more than a quarter of confirmed cases.

In a statement released on the 17th of March 2020, the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Geoff Makhubo, underlined interventions the City would take to manage and contain the spread of the virus. Amongst them is that “the 79 Clinics within the City have received protective equipment and personnel have been briefed on how to manage and handle suspected and/or otherwise confirmed cases of COVID-19 in line with the national and provincial guidelines and protocols.”

Region A, which is the region Kaalfontein, Allandale and Ebony Park (KAE) fall under has 5 confirmed cases. Region A consists of Midrand, Ivory Park and Diepsloot. The region with the highest number of confirmed cases in the CoJ is Region E. Region E consists of Sandton and Alexandra and has 16 confirmed cases of Coronavirus.

Today, 20 March 2020, the number of new confirmed Coronavirus cases was at 52 from yesterday’s announcement. Of that, 33 new cases come from Gauteng and the majority is South Africans with pending travel history. There’s a possibility that the majority of new cases are local transmissions.

A program of tracing people who have been in contact with Coronavirus positive individuals is underway. The government has recruited 2,000 tracers to coordinate the efforts and ultimately do tracing quicker.