Lockdown Effective Says Ramaphosa as Infection Rate Slows

• Lockdown Effective Says Ramaphosa as Infection Rate Slows

President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the ongoing lockdown in South Africa is effective as the rate of spread of Coronavirus slows.

The number of confirmed cases rose by 89 to 1,934 on Thursday in Africa’s second-largest economy and the most advanced African nation.

However, the president said “It is too early to make a definitive analysis but there is sufficient evidence that the lockdown is working. In the two weeks before the lockdown, daily infections were increasing by 42%. Since the lockdown the daily increase has fallen to 4%,” said Ramaphosa.

The president, who extended the lockdown by another 14 days, said it was too risky to lift the lockdown at the moment.

“If we end the lockdown too soon or too abruptly, we risk a massive and uncontrolled resurgence of the disease … This evening I stand before you to ask you to endure even longer.

“I have to ask you to make even greater sacrifices so that our country may survive this crisis, and so that tens of thousands of lives may be saved,” he said.