Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced today [April 25], that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa is 4 361.
The total number of tests conducted to date is 161 004, of which 8 614 were done in the last 24 hours. The Minister also reported seven more deaths, making the total number of deaths 86.
The provincial breakdown of the deaths is as follows:
Eastern Cape: 4
Western Cape: 2
Limpopo: 1
Gauteng: 1304
Western Cape: 1514
KwaZulu-Natal: 847
Eastern Cape: 488
Free Sate: 111
Limpopo: 30
North West: 28
Mpumalanga: 23
Northern Cape: 16
Today we also commemorate World Malaria Day and as South Africa we support the worldwide campaign “Zero Malaria Starts With Me”. “We are mindful that while we put our efforts in fighting the COVID-19, we dare not lose sight of our determination to fight against malaria,” the Minister said in a statement.
“This requires us to be vigilant as we continue to contend with communicable and non-communicable diseases. The World Health Organisation has made an all important call to minimize disruptions to malaria prevention and treatment services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Failure to do this could undo the strides that have already been achieved and lead to doubling of malaria cases this year as compared to 2018, according to WHO modeling analysis.”
Indeed, many of the policies applied for COVID-19 were lessons drawn from the campaign to eliminate malaria by 2023 including community screening and testing; the rollout of insecticide-treated nets and indoor residual spraying at community levels, multisectoral and multinational co-operation for malaria prevention and treatment tools are all strategies that have been adopted and modified for the accelerated and concerted global effort against COVID-19.
Picture: Unsplash
