Eastern Cape overtakes Gauteng in confirmed Covid-19 cases

Fears about an escalation of Covid-19 cases in the Eastern Cape due to its location next to the hard-hit Western Cape have proved true.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize revealed on Tuesday that the Eastern Cape has overtaken Gauteng with the second highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa.

Mkhize tweeted that the Eastern Cape now has 4 324 confirmed cases. This means that it has 48 more cases than Gauteng (4 276), the country’s economic hub and most populous province.

He noted that the Western Cape’s tally of confirmed Covid-19 cases now stands at 23 583. The province, which is the epicentre of the pandemic in South Africa, accounts for almost two-thirds of the country’s 35 812 confirmed cases thus far (as of Tuesday).

The provincial breakdown is as follows:

Eastern Cape
4324

Free State
299

Gauteng
4276

KwaZulu-Natal
2637

Limpopo
193

Mpumalanga
132

North West
271

Northern Cape
91

Western Cape
23583

Unknown
6

— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) June 2, 2020

Mkhize, who traditionally issues a daily statement in the evening updating the nation on new Covid-19 statistics, did not reveal the latest death figures. On Monday, he said the country’s coronavirus-related death toll stood at 705, with 525 of those having occurred in the Western Cape.

Read: South Africa’s Covid-19 deaths surpass 700

With 82 deaths currently, the Eastern Cape also accounts for the second highest number of Covid-19 fatalities, ahead of KwaZulu-Natal (52) and Gauteng (33). The province overtook KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in terms of virus-related deaths in early April.

The Eastern Cape overtaking Gauteng with the second highest number of Covid-19 cases comes after both Mkhize and other government officials raised concerns in April about migrant workers travelling between the Western Cape and their homes in the Eastern Cape. Interprovincial travel is currently banned to curb the spread of the virus, but many workers opted to go back to the Eastern Cape ahead of the initial lockdown in March.

Touring the town of Ceres and the Witzenberg Municipality on Tuesday as part of a Covid-19 oversight visit to the Western Cape, Mkhize said the municipality has been hard hit by the virus with cluster outbreaks in the farming community.

He added that Witzenberg has developed a protocol for seasonal workers travelling between the Western and Eastern Cape.

This area is responsible for 45% of the agricultural export of the country. The biggest challenge is that there was no lockdown in this area, because most of the workers are essential service. Therefore the response had to be proactive. #WCOversightVisit

— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) June 2, 2020