On Wednesday 9 December 2020, Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that South Africa has, according to scientific evidence, officially entered into the second wave of the novel Coronavirus.
With the spiking number of CoVID-19 cases; over 20 000 deaths have been confirmed nationwide since the first case was diagnosed. This is against the backdrop of 6000 breached cases, bringing the total to 828 598 cumulative cases in South Africa as of 9 December 2020. Four of the nine provinces in South Africa have now been identified as hotspots, namely Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Dr Mkhize alerted citizens to 30% of new cases that were detected in the Western Cape, 24% in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal accounting for 23%; and 17% in Gauteng. “The Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 1% of new cases respectively while Northern Cape accounted for less than 1%”, the statement reads.
This festive season will require all citizens to go above and beyond, and even make some sacrifices to prioritise the lives and livelihoods of our people. This means using measures and precautions within our power to protect one another from this deadly pandemic. Numerous super spreader events have been identified, and will be the epicentres of CoVID-19 infections, as citizens wish to end off what has been a challenging year. It is up to each and every one of us to proceed with caution rather than live in regret.
As Brand South Africa we firmly believe that every citizen can play their part by taking preventive measures such as social distancing, wearing masks at all times when in public, practicing good hygiene. Now more than ever, the country needs solidarity to flatten the curve as we strive to overcome the second wave.
The future of our nation and humanity is in our hands. We have done it before and together, we can do it again.
Statement issued by Brand South Africa
