Update: SA Covid-19 cases hit 1170, one confirmed death

As night fell on the first day of the nationwide 21-day lockdown to try to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in South Africa, Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu confirmed on Friday evening there was now 1170 Covid-19 cases in the country.

Speaking during an inter-ministerial briefing by the government’s Covid-19 National Command Council in Pretoria, he also clarified that only one of the two deaths cited in a Health Department statement on Friday morning is now confirmed as being Covid-19 related.

The brief original statement by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize noted that South Africa had its first two Covid-19 related deaths and had ‘tipped” past the 1000 mark in terms of overall confirmed cases.

Mkhize was not at the evening briefing, however, Mthembu stressed that the second deceased case was suspected of being Covid-19 related, but this was not confirmed.

Earlier on Friday morning, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde also noted that South Africa’s first two Covid-19 deaths had occurred in the province. In addition to the death of the 48-year-old ICU patient, he said a 28-year-old female who was admitted to hospital on Thursday and received emergency healthcare, had also passed away early of Friday morning.

“The clinical picture is consistent with Covid-19 but we are awaiting the test results to confirm this,” he said.

However, in a statement late on Friday night, the Health Department explained that the younger patient who died was a suspected case based on her clinical presentation.

“The clinicians who were treating her have reported to us that this was a 28-year-old female who had presented at the hospital in respiratory distress. At the time of presentation, she was hypoxic. She was intubated and transferred to hospital during the early hours of this morning, 27 March 2020 at 3am,” it noted.

“On arrival in ICU, she was declared dead. The clinical picture was suggestive of Covid-19 and therefore a test was conducted. Her laboratory results have since been received at 17:20 and were confirmed negative. Her immediate family was also tested, and they are also negative. She is therefore no longer considered a Covid-19 case,” the statement added.