The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded 294 000 global infections on Saturday, the highest daily increase of the pandemic so far.
The BBC reported that cases were continuing to surge in many countries, while others which had seemed to succeed in suppressing initial outbreaks were seeing infections rise again.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the pandemic as ‘easily the most severe’ global health emergency the organisation had ever seen and that there might never be a vaccine to defeat the virus.
According to the latest Johns Hopkins University tally, more than 21.5 million cases and over 771 000 deaths have been registered globally.
Several countries across Europe reported recent rises. The BBC reported that Spain, one of the worst-affected countries in the early months of the pandemic, had seen an increase in recent weeks, with experts warning that the country had once again reached a ‘critical situation’.
France was also experiencing a surge infections.
The United Kingdom recorded 1 040 new positive tests for Covid-19, the sixth day in a row of there being more than 1 000 reported infections.
Tedros noted that about half of all cases reported so far were from the United States, Brazil and India.
In South Africa, the African National Congress applauded President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership of the Covid-19 response, and welcomed the easing of the lockdown, but the main opposition parties were critical.
Democratic Alliance interim leader John Steenhuisen said the announcement came too late as many jobs had already been lost, according to an IOL report.
It quoted Steenhuisen as saying: ‘The only thing the lockdown achieved was the devastation of our economy and the loss of millions of jobs. And that is what President Ramaphosa and his government must take responsibility for. The president admitted this evening that the models used to justify shutting down the economy were wrong. This is not something he can casually mention and walk away from. If they paralysed our economy for five months based on wrong information, heads must roll right at the top,” said Steenhuisen.
The Economic Freedom Fighters charged that the government had used manipulated data and mass under-testing to justify the reopening of the economy at the expense of lives.
It said in a statement: ‘The blunder made by the president will be followed by a loss of life, and the lie of a decrease in infections will be exposed and by that time measures to impose stronger regulations will be too late.’
Positive cases grew in South Africa yesterday by 3 692 to a cumulative total of 587 345 (with 472 377 recoveries). Deaths rose by 162 to 11 839.
The highest tally of cases is in Gauteng (199 635), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (105 383), the Western Cape (102 449) and the Eastern Cape (84 006).