All 9 provinces now have Covid-19 infections

The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 has risen to 402, up by 128 since Sunday, health minister Zweli Mkhize announced.

The Northern Cape has also recorded its first case, Mkhize said on Monday.

This means that all nine provinces have been infected.

Gauteng has the highest number of infections — 207 — followed by the Western Cape with 100. KwaZulu-Natal has 60 cases, the Free State 13, Mpumalanga nine, Limpopo and North West four each, and Northern Cape and Eastern Cape two each.

The announcement of the new cases comes as President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to address the nation on Monday night following a meeting with the national command council.

Ramaphosa will give an update on measures to be taken to try to curb the spread of the virus. He was meant to address the nation on Sunday but that was postponed to Monday.

A state of disaster was declared a week ago in a bid to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and has resulted in strict regulations being implemented. Those include limiting the number of people at gatherings, restaurants, bars and taverns. The regulations also limit the time at which alcohol can be sold.

On Monday, Mkhize said that after Ramaphosa's address, the government would “engage the public to give further details and explanations of the results including the significant rise, the ongoing testing processes, [and] each province’s progress on contact tracing efforts”.

The health minister gave a breakdown of the age groups affected; however, there were 129 unknowns. He said that was information the National Institute for Communicable Diseases was still collating and verifying.

quintalg@businesslive.co.za