Covid-19 update: SA records 1 767 new cases, government opens borders

Covid-19 update: SA records 1 767 new cases, government opens borders

As of Wednesday evening, South Africa recorded 1 767 new cases and 67 more deaths. However, despite the daily infections, Mzansi opened its borders to other countries.

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South Africa now has a total of 674 339 coronavirus cases since the pandemic broke out several months ago.

Despite recording new cases each day, the economy is systematically opening to combat the effects the pandemic has had. The latest industry to resume its duties is international travel.

Briefly.co.za took a look at the latest Covid-19 updates:

1. SA records 1 767 new cases, 67 more fatalities

On Wednesday evening, Dr Zweli Mkhize released the latest Covid-19 statistics on Twitter. The minister of health revealed the country had nearly double the amount of new cases compared to the previous day.

He captioned the post:

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"As of today, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases is 674 339, the total number of deaths is 16 734 and the total number of recoveries is 608 112."

Covid-19 update: SA records 1 767 new cases, government opens borders
On Wednesday evening, SA had 1 767 new coronavirus cases with 67 more deaths - bringing the total number of fatalities to 16 734. Photo: @DrZweliMkhize / Twitter.
Source: Twitter

2. Minister Blade Nzimande announces universities can return to 100% attendance

After the recent announcement that the country would move to Level 1, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Blade Nzimande confirmed that South African universities may return to 100% attendance.

Nzimande added that international students may have to spend a quarantine period of 10 days upon arrival to the country. The minister made the announcement yesterday at a media briefing regarding how his department would be affected by Level 1.

3. South Africa opens its borders to international travel

The South African government has taken the decision to open its borders to international travel.

Speaking at a media briefing yesterday, Naledi Pandor, the Minister for International Relations and Cooperation, said that there will be a cautious and gradual opening of international borders effective from 1 October. The decision comes after careful consideration as well as guidelines from the World Health Organization.

While people will now be allowed in from other countries, there will be an exception to countries that pose a higher risk. These high-risk countries can be categorised by the number of deaths as well as the number of active cases.

4. Devastating impact on the livelihood of domestic workers

According to data released by Stats SA, more than 250 000 domestic workers lost their jobs during the lockdown.

The statistics show a decline of 259 000 domestic workers in employment in the second quarter, TimesLIVE reported.

In other news, the number of people who have lost their lives to the Covid-19 pandemic has now topped one million since the first case was reported in China in late 2019.

As of Tuesday, September 29, according to a tally by Worldometer, the death toll had hit 1 006 471 with the US and Brazil being the hardest-hit. The two countries had lost at least 209 808 and 142 161 people respectively.

China, where the new disease was first reported in 2019, had lost 4 634 people with the country registering 85 384 cases, of which 80,566 had recovered from the infection.

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Source: Briefly News

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