2020 coronavirus pandemic in South Africa

2020 coronavirus pandemic in South Africa
Map with number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per province.   10–99   100-999   1000+
Map with number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths per province.   1-9   10+
Confirmed deaths; comparing South Africa with 7 other countries from the date of the 1st death, as of 26 April 2020.
Disease	Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Virus strain	Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
Location	South Africa
First outbreak	Wuhan, Hubei, China 30°35′14″N 114°17′17″E
Index case	Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal
Arrival date	1 March 2020 (1 month, 3 weeks and 6 days ago)
Confirmed cases	4793 (as of 27 April 2020)
Recovered	1473 (as of 23 April 2020)
Deaths	90 (as of 27 April 2020)
Official website
sacoronavirus.co.za

The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic spread to South Africa with Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize announcing the first confirmed case on 5 March 2020 - the patient being a South African returning from Italy.

On 15 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster, and announced measures like immediate travel restrictions and the closure of schools from 18 March. On 23 March, Ramaphosa issued a national lockdown starting on 26 March 2020. On 23 April, Ramaphosa announced that there will be gradual and phased easing of lockdown restrictions, lowering the national alert level to 4 from 1 May 2020.

On 21 April, Ramaphosa announced a 500 billion rand stimulus in response to the pandemic.

As of 27 April 2020, there were 4793 confirmed cases and 90 confirmed deaths, from 178470 tests.

Preparations

After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, an emergency operation centre was immediately activated.

Testing

By 7 February the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) had conducted 42 tests of people in South Africa, all results negative.

By mid-March, state hospital were offering free COVID-19 testing.

Cumulative number of tests and ratio of positive to total tests (data missing on 25 March)

Rolling 3 day average number of new tests and cases

On 30 March 2020, the government announced its intentions of initiating an enhanced screening and testing programme. On 3 April 2020, the NICD made alterations to its testing guidelines to further allow for anyone who presented with relevant COVID-19 symptoms to be tested (previously there were additional requirements such as history of foreign travel or recent contact with a confirmed case). By the start of April, 67 mobile testing units had been established and 47000 people had been tested, some in drive-through facilities.

On 8 April, the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) detailed its testing capacity through the country. The NHLS would be able to perform approximately 36000 tests per day.

Many private clinical pathology laboratories were also conducting tests. The CEO of the NHLS, Dr Kamy Chetty, said that by 9 April 2020 the majority of tests had been done in the private sector as the initial cases had been linked to international travellers who were likely to be on private medical aids.

By 9 April 2020, South Africa had conducted 68874 tests at 1.2 tests per thousand, considerably lower than for example Turkey (3.3), the United Kingdom (3.6), and South Korea (9.7). However, the ratio of positive tests to total tests conducted was significantly lower than most countries. By 10 April, the number of tests had increased to 73028, making the average number of tests per day in the first 10 days of April roughly 3300. The chair of the board of the NHLS, Eric Buch, stated that it had a capacity of 15000 tests per day and would welcome doing more tests. On 12 April, Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that the number of tests carried out in the previous 24 hours had increased to 5 032, with 3 192 carried out in public laboratories.

On 14 April, Stavros Nicolaou, head of Business for South Africa's healthcare working group and Aspen Pharmacare executive, said that South Africa had the capacity and kits to do 25000 tests a day.

By 23 April the total number of tests was 143570. The number of daily tests increased: for the first 14 days of April the daily average number of tests was 3394; for the next 9 days the daily average was 6283. The rate of positive tests versus total tests remained less than 3%. The Minister of Health released figures that showed that of all the tests done up to 23 April, 62% had been done in the private sector and 38% in the public sector. However, that ratio was changing as the public sector increased capacity. The public sector performed 63% of the new tests reported on 23 April 2020.

Clinical trials, vaccines, and treatment

On 17 March 2020, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority announced that it would expedite review of treatments, vaccines and clinical trials.

A team from eight universities and fourteen hospitals led by Helen Rees and Jeremy Nel from the University of the Witwatersrand participated in the World Health Organisation Solidarity Clinical Trials that investigated medications.

Confirmed cases

COVID-19 cases in South Africa  ()      Deaths        Recoveries        Active cases Mar Mar Apr Apr Last 15 days Last 15 days
Date			# of cases	deaths
2020-03-05		​	1(n.a.)
2020-03-06		​	1
2020-03-07		​	2(+100%)
2020-03-08		​	3(+50%)
2020-03-09		​	7(+133%)
2020-03-10		​	7
2020-03-11		​	13(+86%)
2020-03-12		​	16(+23%)
2020-03-13		​	24(+50%)
2020-03-14		​	38(+58%)
2020-03-15		​	51(+34%)
2020-03-16		​	62(+22%)
2020-03-17		​	85(+37%)
2020-03-18		​	116(+36%)
2020-03-19		​	150(+29%)
2020-03-20		​	202(+35%)
2020-03-21		​	240(+19%)
2020-03-22		​	274(+14%)
2020-03-23		​	402(+47%)
2020-03-24		​	554(+38%)
2020-03-25		​	709(+28%)
2020-03-26		​	927(+31%)
2020-03-27		​ ​ ​	1,170(+26%)	1
2020-03-28		​ ​ ​	1,187(+2%)	1
2020-03-29		​ ​ ​	1,280(+8%)	2(+100%)
2020-03-30		​ ​ ​	1,326(+4%)	3(+50%)
2020-03-31		​ ​ ​	1,353(+2%)	5(+67%)
2020-04-01		​ ​ ​	1,380(+2%)	5
2020-04-02		​ ​ ​	1,462(+6%)	5
2020-04-03		​ ​ ​	1,505(+3%)	7(+40%)
2020-04-04		​ ​ ​	1,585(+5%)	9(+29%)
2020-04-05		​ ​ ​	1,655(+4%)	11(+22%)
2020-04-06		​ ​ ​	1,686(+2%)	12(+9%)
2020-04-07		​ ​ ​	1,749(+4%)	13(+8%)
2020-04-08		​ ​ ​	1,845(+6%)	18(+40%)
2020-04-09		​ ​ ​	1,934(+5%)	18
2020-04-10		​ ​ ​	2,003(+4%)	24(+34%)
2020-04-11		​ ​ ​	2,028(+1%)	25(+4%)
2020-04-12		​ ​ ​	2,173(+7%)	25
2020-04-13		​ ​ ​	2,272(+5%)	27(+8%)
2020-04-14		​ ​ ​	2,415(+6%)	27
2020-04-15		​ ​ ​	2,506(+4%)	34(+26%)
2020-04-16		​ ​ ​	2,605(+4%)	48(+41%)
2020-04-17		​ ​ ​	2,783(+7%)	50(+4%)
2020-04-18		​ ​ ​	3,034(+9%)	52(+4%)
2020-04-19		​ ​ ​	3,158(+4%)	54(+4%)
2020-04-20		​ ​ ​	3,300(+4%)	58(+7%)
2020-04-21		​ ​ ​	3,465(+5%)	58
2020-04-22		​ ​ ​	3,635(+5%)	65(+12%)
2020-04-23		​ ​ ​	3,953(+8%)	75(+15%)
2020-04-24		​ ​ ​	4,220(+7%)	79(+5%)
2020-04-25		​ ​ ​	4,361(+3%)	86(+9%)
2020-04-26		​ ​ ​	4,546(+4%)	87(+1%)
2020-04-27		​ ​ ​	4,793(+5%)	90(+3%)
Sources: 2020 coronavirus pandemic in South Africa

On 1 March 2020, the first patient later confirmed with COVID-19 in South Africa, returned with his wife and 8 others from the Metropolitan City of Milan in Italy, travelling via Dubai, O. R. Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, Gauteng and King Shaka International Airport in Durban to Hilton. On 3 March, the patient reported with symptoms to a private general practitioner and isolated himself; the doctor isolated herself as well. On 5 March the Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, announced the first confirmed case, epidemiologists and clinicians from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) were deployed to KwaZulu-Natal in response. and the patient went to Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.

On 7 March, it was announced that a woman from the same travel group from Italy, returning to Gauteng, also tested positive.

On 11 March, 6 new cases were reported, with 1 case from the same travel group from Italy, while the other 5 cases appear unrelated having travel histories to other European countries. The first case was confirmed in the Western Cape province. 3 new cases were announced on 12 March, including the first case in Mpumalanga province. The first local transmission and first case in the Free State province was also announced, but withdrawn later in the day by the NICD who confirmed that the case's test result was in fact negative. This brought the total cases to 16.

On 15 March, the first local transmissions, not yet confirmed by government labs, were announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa. and the following day, the first confirmed case from Limpopo province was announced. The day there after, on 17 March, the first confirmed cases of local transmission were announced by government labs, 4 in Gauteng, 3 in KwaZulu-Natal, and 1 in the Western Cape. On the next day, 18 March, the first confirmed case of local transmission in Mpumalanga was announced by government labs.

On 19 March, the Health Minister suggested that two thirds of the South African population could contract the virus, a prediction in line with Europe's estimates on population infection.

On 20 March, the Free State province recorded seven cases, becoming the sixth of South Africa's nine provinces to be infected. Of the seven cases, five were from abroad (Israel, France and Texas) who had congregated for a church gathering attended by 200 people. O. R. Tambo International Airport instituted isolation of foreigners on arrival and returning them to their countries of origin.

On 21 March, the confirmed number of cases reached 240 with the Eastern Cape reporting its first case, making it the seventh of the nine provinces to report a case. On 23 March, a national 21 day lockdown was announced by President Ramaphosa to begin on 26 March to 16 April. By 24 March all nine provinces had confirmed cases, with the first cases in the Northern Cape and North West announced.

On 1 April, researchers from the NICD and South African National Bioinformatics Institute at the University of Western Cape released the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 from a South African COVID-19 patient.

On 9 April, it was announced that South Africa's cabinet members, which include the President, Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers would donate one-third of their salaries for three months to a solidarity fund.

On 9 April, the St Augustine's Hospital in Durban was shut down following a localised outbreak of over 60 confirmed cases and four COVID-19 related deaths; by then 1,845 had tested positive for the virus nationally with total 18 deaths.

On 10 April, health experts were surprised at the dramatic slow-down in the daily rate of new cases over the previous two weeks, however it was feared that this slow-down may trigger complacency.

On 10 April, Mkhize recommended that the general public use cloth facemasks when going out in public.

On 12 April, there was an increase of over 145 (7.1%) cases including 23 officials and 3 prisoners at the East London Correctional Centre.

On 13 April, chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Salim Abdool Karim indicated that the lockdown had been effective in delaying transmissions. He also described the country's 8-stage plan to combat the corona virus. This included criteria for extending or easing the lockdown.

On 14 April, the number of confirmed cases grew by 143, with 70 of the new cases being from the Eastern Cape.

By 23 April, when President Ramaphosa again addressed the nation the total number of cases had increased to 3953. Detailed figures released by the NICD showed that in April that the number of cases had taken distinct trajectories in different provinces. In the two weeks from 9 to 23 April, the cases in the coastal provinces had a very high increase — Eastern Cape cases rose 583% from a low base, KwaZulu-Natal rose 108% and Western Cape 148%. North West (67%) and Gauteng (57%) had high increases, while the other provinces had much lower increases from 6% in the Northern Cape to 23% in Limpopo (all with low absolute numbers — 106 in the Free State and under 30 in each of the other provinces).

Provinces, and district, local, and metro municipalities

COVID-19 confirmed cases in South Africa by province ()

2020	EC	FS	GP	KZN	LP	MP	NW	NC	WC	un	Confirmed		Deaths		Rec	Ag tests	Ref
											New	Total	New	Total
03-04											0	0				181
03-05				1							1	1
03-06				1							0	1
03-07			1	1							1	2
03-08			1	2							1	3
03-09			1	6							4	7
03-10			?	?					?		3	10
03-11			5	7					1		3	13				645
03-12		0	6	8		1			1		3	16				848
03-13			10	10		1			3		8	24				924
03-14			17	11		1			9		14	38				1017
03-15			24	12		1			14		13	51				1476
03-16			31	12	1	2			16		11	62				2405
03-17			45	16	1	2			21		23	85				2911
03-18			61	19	1	4			31		31	116				3070
03-19			76	22	1	5			46		34	150				4832
03-20		7	109	24	1	5			56		52	202				6438
03-21	1	7	125	27	1	5			74		38	240				7425
03-22	2	9	132	36	1	6			88		34	274				9315
03-23	2	13	207	60	4	9	4	2	100	1	128	402				12815
03-24	2	18	302	80	4	9	5	2	113	19	152	554				15529
03-25	2	30	319	91	4	8	5	2	183	65	155	709
03-26	5	49	409	134	6	9	4	1	229	81	218	927				20471
03-27	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	243	1170	1	1	31
03-28	10	68	533	156	11	10	6	5	271	115	17	1187	0	1		31963
03-29	12	72	584	167	12	11	6	6	310	100	93	1280	1	2		35593
03-30	12	72	618	171	11	11	3	8	324	96		1326	1	3		38409
03-31	12	74	633	179	14	12	6	8	325	90	27	1353	2	5		41072
04-01	15	76	645	186	14	12	7	9	326	90	27	1380	0	5		44292
04-02	17	84	663	206	16	13	?	7	353	94	82	1462	0	5	45	47965
04-03	21	84	672	215	16	13	9	7	374	94	43	1505	2	7		50361
04-04	25	85	693	232	18	18	11	7	433	63	80	1585	2	9		53937
04-05	31	87	704	246	19	18	11	8	454	77	70	1655	2	11		56873
04-06	32	89	713	257	19	18	11	8	462	77	31	1686	1	12		58098
04-07	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	63	1749	1	13
04-08	45	88	782	354	21	21	15	13	495	11	96	1845	5	18		63776
04-09	61	93	795	387	22	20	15	15	515	11		1934	0	18		63776
04-10	68	94	801	412	24	20	18	15	541	10		2003		24	410	73028
04-11	69	94	813	418	23	20	19	16	546	10		2028	1	25		75053
04-12	88	96	865	443	23	21	19	16	587	15	145	2173		25		80085
04-13	104	96	890	465	23	22	22	16	617	17		2272		27		83663
04-14	174	98	909	489	24	22	22	16	643	18		2415		27		87022
04-15	199	97	930	519	25	22	23	16	657	18		2506	7	34		90515
04-16	220	98	969	539	26	22	24	16	675	16		2605		48	903	95060
04-17	246	100	1018	591	26	23	24	16	717	22		2783	2	50		100827
04-18	270	100	1101	604	26	25	24	16	836	32	219	3034	2	52		108021
04-19	293	100	1148	617	27	23	24	16	868	42		3158	2	54		114711
04-20	310	105	1170	639	27	23	25	18	940	43	142	3300	4	58	1055	121510
04-21	345	106	1199	671	27	24	24	16	1010	43		3465		58		126937
04-22	377	106	1224	758	27	23	24	16	1079	1		3635	7	65	1055	133774
04-23	417	106	1252	807	27	23	25	16	1279	1	318	3953	10	75	1473	143570
04-24	480	111	1281	841	29	24	25	16	1413	0	267	4220	4	79	1473	152390
04-25	488	111	1304	847	30	23	28	16	1514	0	141	4361	7	86		161004
04-26	535	110	1331	863	31	23	28	17	1608	0	185	4546	1	87		168643
04-27	588	111	1353	902	31	26	28	17	1737	0		4793	3	90		178470
	EC	FS	GP	KZN	LP	MP	NW	NC	WC	un	New	Total	New	Total	Rec	Ag tests	Ref
											Confirmed		Deaths

• 

  Cumulative number of cases of COVID-19 in South Africa by province (total and per-capita).

• 

  Map with number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per district in Gauteng as of 22 April 2020.

• 

  Map with number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per district in the North West as of 23 April 2020.

• 

  Map with number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per local and metro municipality in the Western Cape as of 26 April 2020.

  1–9

  10–99

  100-999

  1000+

COVID-19 confirmed cases in the Western Cape.

2020	CS	Antigen tests		Confirmed cases									Hosp		Deaths	Rec	Ref
		CS tests		CT	Wi	Ka	Ga	Ov	We	un	Total	Active		ICU
03-31 00:01				289	22	0	26	6	2	3	348		13	3		50
04-01 00:01				305	22	0	30	8	2	3	370		16	4
04-02 00:01				321	22	0	37	8	2	3	393		20	7
04-03 00:01				333	27	0	42	10	2	4	418		25	7
04-04				347	28	0	45	10	3	13	446		23	9
04-05				368	28	0	50	10	4	4	464		20	9
04-06	1492	45		377	28	0	53	10	4	3	475		26	12	2
04-07				389	28	0	54	10	4	5	490		28	10	3
04-08	3930	258		407	29	0	55	10	5	4	510		31	9
04-09 00:01	8215	449		421	29	0	55	10	5	2	522		32	10		162
04-10 00:01	12376	852		440	29	0	55	10	5	6	545		31	12	6
04-11 00:01				463	29	0	56	10	5	4	567		29	12
04-12 00:01				492	29	0	57	10	5	6	599		24	11	7
04-13 00:01				512	29	0	56	10	5	16	628		29	15
04-14 00:01				548	30	0	56	10	5	9	657		35	18		184
04-15 00:01		1220		571	31	0	55	11	5	3	676	477	37	18	7	192
04-16 00:01	28718	2102	12785	591	34	0	55	11	7	4	702	490	35	16	7	205
04-17 00:01	41099	2782	13752	617	38	0	55	11	7	15	743	525	33	16	13	205
04-17 17:00	62509	3195		680	44	0	57	12	6	13	812	587	38	15	15	210
04-18 17:00			16499	725	46	0	60	12	8	15	866	635	38	12	16	215
04-19 17:00			17307	755	60	0	60	12	8	10	905	673	37	17	17	215
04-20 17:00	81629	3818	18931	804	65	0	60	12	8	25	974	736	39	17	17	221
04-21 17:00			20268	856	78	0	60	12	9	53	1068	817	43	19	22	229
04-22 17:00	123683	5230	21077	954	89	0	60	12	9	29	1153	892	53	23	25	236
04-23 17:00	150847	6006	22691	1110	107	0	60	12	10	15	1314	1042	62	24	28	244
04-24 17:00			24241	1198	130	0	60	12	10	25	1435	1156	63	16	30	249
04-25 17:00			25774	1285	130	0	60	12	10	34	1531	1250	68	26	32	249
04-26 17:00			26666	1363	147	0	60	12	12	24	1618	1336	75	26	33	249

Isolation and lockdown

Shoppers exercising measures of social distancing at Paarl Mall in Paarl, Western Cape

State of disaster

By mid-March, isolation measures gathered pace, and on 15 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster, prohibiting gatherings of more than 100 people. On 18 March, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma signed a government gazette limiting the number of patrons at pubs, clubs, and restaurants to 50.

Parliament suspended all activities as of 18 March. and the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance postponed their elective conferences. The Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) cancelled all scheduled cases from 18 March 2020 and prohibited walk-in referrals of new cases. Only electronic referrals accepted.

Schools were closed on 18 March 2020, resuming tentatively in May, with the June holidays shortened by a week and the September holidays shortened by 3 days.

Most universities suspended classes around this time as well. University of Pretoria, University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, Rhodes University, University of KwaZulu Natal and Durban University of Technology graduation ceremonies were cancelled or postponed until further notice.

After panic buying, some retailers put limitations on the number of certain items customers could buy. On 19 March, Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel signed a government gazette that enforces price controls on essential items and that could see price gougers punished with measures including a R10 million fine, a fine equivalent to 10% of a firm's turnover, or 12 months in prison.

Events cancelled or postponed

Major sporting codes suspended their activities, including Super Rugby, 2019-20 Pro14 season, Varsity Rugby, Premier Soccer League, Athletics South Africa, Sunshine Tour golf, Wimpy Lifesaving South Africa national championships and Parkrun. The Cape Epic cycle tour and the 2020 Two Oceans Marathon were cancelled.

Live events cancelled or postponed included the Mangaung African Cultural Festival (MACUFE), Bloem Show, AfrikaBurn, Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Splashy Fen Festival, Rand Show, National Arts Festival (changing to virtual), SciFest Africa (postponed to 9–15 September), WWE Live South Africa (postponed until September) and Comic Con Cape Town. South African tours were postponed by the Lighthouse Family, Boyz II Men and BeBe Winans.

Trade and agricultural shows postponed or cancelled included HuntEx, DecorEx Cape Town & Durban, Tyrexpo (postponed to 4–6 August 2020), Power & Electricity World expo (postponed until 20–21 August), the Pietermaritzburg Royal Show, SA Cheese Festival, Qualité Awards Dinner, and Agri-Expo Western Cape Youth Show.

The Zion Christian Church cancelled its annual Easter pilgrimage. The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) suspended Friday prayers, then closed mosques altogether on Sunday 22 March, but the call to prayer will still be given. Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein suspended Synagogues. Traditional circumcision schools in the Eastern Cape were suspended.

The City of Johannesburg closed all public facilities indefinitely including public swimming pools, recreational and civic centres, stadiums, libraries, sporting facilities, and the Johannesburg Zoo. The Ethekhwini Metropolitan Municipality closed all of Durban's public facilities including swimming pools, beaches, libraries, community halls, and museums while restrictions have been put in place for the Durban Art Gallery and cemeteries to only allow 50 people at a time. The City of Cape Town closed all public facilities indefinitely including public swimming pools, recreational and civic centres, stadiums, sporting facilities, and the nature reserves.

Lockdown

Greenmarket Square in Cape Town seven days before (left) and on the first day (right) of the COVID-19 national lockdown. After the lockdown the market stall traders that normally setup on the square everyday are not present and only people exempt from the lockdown (security personnel and municipal employees) can be seen.

See also: National responses to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

On 23 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation and announced a 21-day national lockdown effective from midnight 27 March through to 16 April, with the deployment of the South African National Defence Force to support the government. On 9 April the President announced a two-week lockdown extension, until the end of April. Exempt from the lockdown are people deemed necessary to the effective response to the pandemic such as:

• health workers, pharmacy and laboratory personnel, emergency personnel;
• security services (police officers, military personnel, and private security);
• people regarded as necessary to the basic functioning of the economy (supermarkets, transportation and logistical services, petrol stations, banks, essential financial and payment services); and
• those working in industries that can not be economically shut down (such as mines and steel mills).

During the lockdown, all gatherings except for funerals were prohibited. Restaurants, taverns, bottle stores and all other stores not selling essential goods are to close during the lockdown period. Schools, already closed a week before the lockdown period, will not reopen until after the lockdown. Non-exempt people are only allowed to leave their homes during this period to access health services, collect social grants, attend small funerals (no more than 50 people) and shop for food. See the South African Government Gazette 25 March 2020 for a complete list of exemptions and non-exemptions during the lockdown period. South Africans have been ordered not to take their dogs for a walk during the lockdown, though they may walk them around their house or apartment building.

A billboard at the end of Long Street, Cape Town encourages people to stay at home during the lockdown period.

People may not be evicted from their place of residence during the lockdown.

Movement between provinces, and between metropolitan and district areas are prohibited except for

• essential workers, to and from work;
• transportation of sanitised and disinfected cargo from ports of entry;
• the transportation of mortal remains; and
• the attendance of funerals (restricted).

All borders of the country are closed during the lockdown, except for designated ports of entry for the transportation of fuel, cargo, and goods.

International and domestic passenger flights are prohibited, except for flights authorised by the Ministry of Transport, for the evacuation of South African nationals in foreign countries, and for certain repatriations.

Levels

Easing of the lockdown restrictions was announced on 23 April 2020, with a national level 4 lockdown from 1 May 2020.

5	4				Alcohol ban.
5	4				Travel bans: international, passenger air and sea, provincial, and local.
	4				Curfew: 20:00 to 05:00 except for essential workers.
	4				Exercise: limited.
	4				Masks, cloth: mandatory when in public.
	4				Sales allowed: food, cleaning, protective, babycare, stationery; winter clothing, bedding, heating; medical supplies; fuel, coal, wood, gas; tobacco; hardware supplies for emergency home repairs and essential services by qualified tradespersons; components for vehicles for essential workers; chemicals, packaging, and supply of level 4 products.
	4				Screening: public and at workplaces.
		3			Easing of restrictions on work and social activities.
			2		Further easing of restrictions, maintenance of physical distancing.
				1	Most normal activity resumes with precautions.

Reduced deaths from non-COVID-19 causes

During Easter, there were 28 fatalities from road accidents during the lockdown, compared to 162 in 2019.

During the lockdown, 432 murder cases were reported, compared to 1542 during the same period the previous year: 29 March 2019 to 22 April 2019.

Enforcement

Minister of Police Bheki Cele announced, on 5 April, a reduction in cash-in-transit thefts thanks to increased road blocks and more visible policing. He also announced a reduced murder rate. Trauma related hospital admission decreased by two thirds. By the end of the first seven days of the lockdown a total of 2,289 people had been arrested for violating lockdown orders with over 17,000 total arrests for various crimes.

Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, on 8 April, was put on special leave for two months, one without pay, for violating lockdown regulations. A picture of her appeared on social media while having lunch at ANC NEC member Mduduzi Manana's home.

Excessive force

The use of force by police and army personnel was controversial with multiple reports of excessive force in enforcing the lockdown. This included incidents of beatings and preventing people from filming police abuses leading the public advocacy group Right2Know to release a statement that the police had no right to prevent the public "from exercising their constitutional right to film and record incidents".

By the fifth day, three people had died due to alleged excessive force by security officials enforcing the lockdown, equaling the number of people that had died of the virus in South Africa by that date. By 3 April, the eighth day of the lockdown, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) reported that they were investigating eight deaths involving the police since the start of the lockdown. At the time, this exceeded the number of deaths in the country due to the pandemic. This was in-spite of President Ramaphosa's public call for police restraint. By April 12 a total of nine people had died due to police and army action following the beating to death of a man in Alexandra by the army.

The South African National Editors' Forum issued a statement expressing concern over police action denying the media access to sites when covering COVID-19 related stories.

Impact

Notable deaths

• 31 March 2020 Gita Ramjee, scientist and researcher in HIV prevention.

Health

Pick-up trucks dispensed free hand sanitizer in Alexandra.

Repatriation

On 14 March, 112 South Africans were repatriated from Wuhan, China, and placed under observation and in quarantine at The Ranch Resort near Polokwane.

Medical screening was performed prior to departure, four South Africans who were showing signs of coronavirus were left behind to mitigate risk. Only South Africans who tested negative were repatriated.

Test results cleared all the South Africans, including the flight crew, pilots, hotel staff, police and soldiers involved in the humanitarian mission who, as a precautionary measure, all remained under observation and in quarantine for a 14-day period at The Ranch Resort.

Economic impact

Volunteers in Philippi, Cape Town packing food parcels to be given out to the needy during the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown. The lockdown had a seriously negative impact on South Africa's economy that hit the poor and unemployed especially hard.

See also: Socio-economic impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

At the beginning of the national shutdown on 27 March South African economists predicted that the pandemic could cause a 2.5% to 10% contraction of South Africa's total GDP in 2020. The national lockdown and resulting economic slowdown reduced demand for electricity by more than 7500 MW thereby temporarily reducing the impact of the long running South African energy crisis.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange lost 15% of its value in the week ending 13 March 2020, its worst week in 21 years.

On 19 March, the South African Reserve Bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago announced a reduction of the country's repo rate by 100 basis points or 1 percentage point to 5.25%. On 14 April, a further reduction to 4.25% per year was made.

On 22 March, Standard Bank announced a 90-day payment holiday for small and medium-sized business and students to try and shield them from the economic impact of the outbreak, starting from 1 April.

Looting

A number of liquor stores and food stores were targeted by looters in the Cape Town suburbs of Manenberg, Sherwood Park, Nyanga Junction, and Gatesville.

Misinformation

Main article: Misinformation related to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

The arrival of the COVID-19 virus in South Africa saw an increase in the dissemination of misinformation about the virus on social media and other platforms. These range from messages minimising the virus's harm in the country to the propagation of conspiracy theories about government actions to control the virus.

Deliberately spreading fake news and other misinformation in South Africa about the virus was declared an offence punishable by a fine, six months' imprisonment, or both.

One individual was arrested for posting a video showing himself drinking in public with friends following the national lock-down whilst stating that there was "nothing called corona here". In another incident a man claimed that 10,000 government officials would be going door-to-door using contaminated test kits to test people for the virus. A conspiracy theory that Bill Gates wished to test a COVID-19 "vaccine" in Africa or South Africa first caused significant controversy on social media following the publication of a now retracted story in News24. Trevor Noah stated that he received hate mail for conducting the interview on The Daily Show with Gates where it was falsely reported that Gates made the claim.

Fake news that 5G cellular technology was the true cause of COVID-19 symptoms also spread in the country during this period as it also did in other countries around the world.

External links

• Government COVID-19 website
• Dashboard - Data Science for Social Impact Research Group, University of Pretoria
• COVID-19 statistics for SA - UCT
• COVID-19 regulations and guidelines
• National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)
• Government officials' speeches
• World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 pandemic information