Gauteng to overtake Western Cape as Covid-19 epicentre
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says Gauteng is expected to overtake Western Cape in Covid-19 in the coming days, as the province in South Africa with the most cases.
The latest figures from the Health Department shows Gauteng has 39 895 confirmed case, while the Western Cape has 60 445 infections.
Mkhize says Gauteng's Covid-19 numbers are expected to surge in the coming days as the testing backlog is cleared.
"We shouldn't be surprised, we do expect the numbers to be highest in Gauteng ultimately, in fact, the original predictions was putting Gauteng first and Kwazulu-Natal next. It just happened it didn't follow that pattern.
"So there is nothing surprising seeing the numbers in Gauteng going higher than the numbers in the Western Cape. I think you need to be aware that the situation in Gauteng was contained for a short period but once we have seen the mining opening we started seeing numbers shooting up," says Mkhize.
In his daily Covid-19 statement, Mkhize says his department has been engaging the Gauteng provincial government to ramp up their capacity expeditiously.
"We have identified the need to increase Covid-19 hospital beds in this province and we will be supporting the province to ensure that they are capacitated to meet the rising demands," he says.
The latest figures show 6 334 new infections across the country in the 24 hours leading to Sunday evening.
This brings the total number of cases countrywide to 138 134.
In the last 24 hours, 43 people lost their lives, with the death toll increasing to 2 456.
READ THE FULL REPORT BELOW:
Final Media Statement 28 June 2022 by Jacaranda FM News on Scribd