Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced an increase of 1 455 new Covid-19 positive cases, taking the total as of Tuesday to 35 812 cases.
Mkhize made the announcement out at Sonstraal Hospital in the Western Cape, where he is conducting inspection tours.
He said 761 534 tests have been conducted to date, of which 18 792 were completed in the past 24 hours.
The department did not yet have the number of deaths reported in the past 24 hours, which would be provided later.
As of today, the cumulative number of confirmed #COVID19 cases is
35 812.— Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) June 2, 2020
@DrZweliMkhize vows: "We will use private beds".
Adds: There will be no difference in class of care for poor South Africans.
"There will be one protocol (ie: regardless of income levels)" – Mkhize @News24 @TeamNews24 pic.twitter.com/0tw6YALD5k
— MURRAY WILLIAMS (@NoSurrenderRSA) June 2, 2020
Also in other news:
This is what you need to know about the coronavirus right now
From experts saying Covid-19 is losing its potency to using air bridges at airports, here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now.
Matter of potency
World Health Organization experts and a range of other scientists refuted the claims of Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy’s San Raffaele Hospital in Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy’s epidemic, that the new coronavirus was losing its potency.
Zangrillo told Reuters: “We have never said that the virus has changed, we said that the interaction between the virus and the host has definitely changed. He said this could be due either to different characteristics of the virus, which he said they had not yet identified, or different characteristics in those infected.
This is what you need to know about the coronavirus right now
