Latest COVID-19 case numbers in South Africa

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced his department has recorded a total 20,125 COVID-19 cases in South Africa.

This is an increase of 988 cases from the 19,137 cases reported yesterday. The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 now stands at 10,104 in the country.

Mkhize said the total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 has risen to 397, which is an increase of 28 deaths from 369 reported yesterday.

543,032 tests have been conducted to date in the country, with 17,599 tests done in the past 24 hours.

Globally, COVID-19 cases have topped 5.2 million, deaths have exceeded 335,000, and there are nearly 2.1 million recoveries.

The graphic below details the latest COVID-19 case numbers for South Africa.

COVID-19 case numbers

Cigarette ban

As part of South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown, the sale of cigarettes is prohibited nationwide.

This is something which has angered many South Africans, who are calling for the ban to be lifted.

Free Market Foundation (FMF) CEO Leon Louw believes that the cigarette ban in South Africa may last until 2021.

“Smokers should be prepared to pay R20 for a single cigarette or R200 a box for many months to come,” said Louw.

“The pandemic will be with us in some form until next year, so don’t expect tobacco sales to be unbanned before 2021.”

Louw told MyBroadband that cooperative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) that the sale of tobacco and alcohol should remain banned until South Africa reaches level 1 of lockdown.