Premier Alan Winde update on Coronavirus COVID-19 on 16 May

As of 1pm on 16 May, the Western Cape has 5263 active cases of Covid-19, with a total of 8507 confirmed cases and 3097   recoveries. 

Sub Districts Cape Town Metro:

Sub Districts Non-Metro:

 Unallocated: 474 (21 recovered)

Cases previously assigned to Witzenberg (1 case) and Mossel Bay (1 case) have been reallocated to other sub-districts due to updates in address data.

Additional data can be accessed on the dashboard at www.westerncape.gov.za/coronavirus

The Western Cape has recorded an additional ten COVID-19 deaths-bringing the total number of deaths from the virus in the province to 147. We send our condolences to the family and the loved ones of the deceased at this time.

 Today's statistics show a considerable jump in new infections over the past 24 hours. There are a number of reasons for this large jump: as we have indicated before, the curve of the virus is moving faster in the Western Cape as a result of entrenched community transmission in some of the Western Cape's hotspot areas. The Western Cape has also seen a considerable increase in the number of tests conducted in the past 24 hours (6150 additional tests), and backlogs in the processing of tests at the National Health Laboratory Services result in batches of results being released simultaneously.

President's Coordinating Council:

Today, I attended a virtual meeting of the President Cyril Ramaphosa's Coordinating Council. This meeting comprises Ministers, the Premiers of all nine provinces, as well as representatives from the South African Local Government Association. 

The focus of the discussion was around the response to COVID-19 across the provinces, and the move towards alert level 3 of the lockdown. We received a number of presentations including one from the National Department of Health. 

The Western Cape presented its hotspot strategy to the group, as the provincial response to the number of infections in nine geographical areas. These areas- in each of the City of Cape Town's eight sub-districts, and in Witzenberg account for a large proportion of the Western Cape's infections. Using the data and evidence available to us, we will be able to specifically target these areas with responses from across government departments. 

All of the information presented will  be taken into the National Command Council Meeting to be held tomorrow, where further deliberations will take place.