The Department of Health has revealed the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is now 1,585, up by 80 from the day before.

Gauteng has the most cases with 693, followed by the Western Cape on 433, and KwaZulu-Natal with 232.

The total number of COVID-19 tests conducted to date in South Africa is 53,937, a daily increase of 3,576.

The table below provides an overview of the latest coronavirus statistics in South Africa.

Province Number of cases Gauteng 693 Western Cape 433 KwaZulu-Natal 232 Free State 85 Eastern Cape 25 Mpumalanga 18 Limpopo 18 North West 11 Northern Cape 7 Unallocated 63

New cases in South Africa

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in South Africa is currently trending below estimates recently laid out by the Department of Health.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told journalists on Tuesday the government had expected the total number of confirmed cases to have reached between 4,000 and 5,000 by 2 April.

Data from other countries shows the number of coronavirus infections is likely to increase suddenly and exponentially – making this prediction understandable.

Flattening the exponential curve of infection has required drastic intervention by governments, such as imposing strict physical distancing rules, intense contact tracing, or placing their countries under lockdown.

Mkhize believes the case numbers will change drastically once the government rolls out testing to rural areas.

He also said that South Africa needs a lot more data before the country can make definitive decisions on the length of its lockdown period.

Now read: Here is what happened in South Africa when the lockdown hit