South Africa has embarked on the widespread testing and quarantine campaign which saw about 10 000 field workers being sent out into homes in villages, towns and cities to screen for symptoms of coronavirus.
The strategy resembles that of South Korea which helped the Asian country contain the deadly pandemic.
South Africa, the most hit African country, had before the rollout of mass screening and testing, conducted over 47 500 tests.
The number is however insignificant for that country’s Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize who is factoring in that South Africa has a total population of 57 million people where millions of them have underlying conditions such as HIV and TB.
South Africa is already on a 21-day lockdown that was imposed to stop the spread of the pandemic.
World Health Organisation technical officer Mary Stephen told AFP that the speed at which the virus is spreading requires countries through governments to scale up public awareness, surveillance and medical care.
More: AFP