If we contain everyone, it should allow people to shed the virus - Health minister
24 March 2020
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says while there might be an increase in the number of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in the next week, he is confident the lockdown measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa will have an impact.
"We expect that probably if there should be a change, we should probably start seeing it in the third week."
On Monday, Ramaphosa announced that a countrywide lockdown would be imposed from Thursday at midnight.
This, as the Department of Health announced on Tuesday that the number of infected persons had increased to 554 confirmed cases. Two of these cases are in ICU at private hospitals, Mkhize said, adding that no deaths were recorded.