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Africa News of Tuesday, 14 April 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

How nationwide lockdown flattened South Africa's curve

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa

A ray of hope is dawning in South Africa following their ability to douse the effect of COVID-19 in their cities.

At a press briefing, the chair of the government’s advisory committee said South Africa’s success in halting an exponential rise in cases was unprecedented.

The stats speak well for the Xhosa nation who have managed to cut and stabilise its number of infections rapidly

The government’s chief adviser Prof Abdool Karim, said it was clear that by acting early and introducing a nationwide lockdown two weeks ago, the virus had been brought under control – at around 65 new cases a day.

Prof Karim acknowledged that might not last for long – that an exponential rise in cases, particularly in poor communities, was probably inevitable at some point.

But he said South Africa had bought itself valuable time, and had used that to train an army of over 20,000 field workers to hunt down new cases.