Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said figures so far showed the lockdown was working.
This conformed to evidence worldwide that lockdowns dramatically decreased the number of infections.
Pointing out that initial outbreak were infections from overseas, brought into the country by tourists or South Africans returning from holidays abroad, he said that when the lockdown was imposed, ‘the importation of new cases’ ceased.
Anyone who had doubted the effectiveness of the lockdown ‘should now be convinced’.
Local transmission had been slowed from a daily increase of about 40% before the lockdown to 4% after.
The death toll in South Africa has risen to 24, with 2 003 infections. So far, 73 028 people have been tested. In all, 410 patients have recovered.
Democratic Alliance interim leader John Steenhuisen’s criticism of the lockdown extension earned the headline ‘Coronavirus in South Africa: Lockdown extension condemned’ on a BBC website report that quoted him as saying it was a ‘great mistake to think in terms of lives versus livelihoods’.
In other local stories, News24 reported that police investigating officers ‘looking into the case against Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams’ had already approached the National Prosecuting Authority. Ndabeni-Abrahams was suspended from the Cabinet last week for two months, one unpaid, for breaking lockdown rules by having lunch with a friend.
Also in trouble is TV and radio personality Somizi Mhlongo. Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula opened a criminal case against him after he had claimed on Thursday that Mbalula had told him about the lockdown extension before the official announcement. He later apologised.
In other virus-related news
- New York state now has more coronavirus cases than any single country outside the United States. Confirmed cases in the state rose by 10 000 on Thursday, to 159 937, placing it ahead of Spain (153 000 cases) and Italy (143 000). China, where the virus emerged last year, has reported 82 000 cases. The US as a whole has recorded 462 000 cases and more than 17 900 deaths.
- Globally, more than 100 300 people have died. Italy has the highest fatalities, at 18 849, followed by the United States with 17 900 and 15 843 in Spain;
- South Korean health authorities said 91 people thought to have recovered after contracting coronavirus had tested positive for the disease again. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was not clear why the patients had tested positive for a second time. It was possible the virus had ‘reactivated’ as opposed to the patients having been re-infected. There was also a possibility the patients had been misdiagnosed by faulty tests;
- The BBC reported that hospitals and ambulance services in Moscow were at risk of being overwhelmed after a steep rise in coronavirus cases. Russia recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases, jumping by 1 786 to almost 12 000. The national death toll stands at 94;
- Conservationists have welcomed the Chinese government’s ban on the consumption of wild animal products, the coronavirus having thought to have been transferred to humans from pangolins; and
- The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is to lead the first national digital Easter Sunday service tomorrow … from his kitchen.