LOCKDOWN MODELS PROBED AS DEATH TOLL RISES
on 18 July, health minister Zwele Mkhize appealed to South Africans to stick to the behaviour changes needed to curb the spread of Covid-19, warning that South Africans were letting down their guard just as infections in the country were surging.
His remarks were extracted from an identical appeal made three weeks earlier, and unsurprisingly did not make headlines.
Few South Africans were aware that the country’s death toll had just passed the 5 000 mark, or that hundreds of people were fighting for their lives in hospitals that had begun to be overwhelmed by a sudden influx of serious Covid-19 cases.
The fact that SA had just clocked up one of the biggest daily spikes of recorded infections in the world and was now fifth overall in its tally of 364 328 cases also failed
