South Africa has started a 3-week nationwide lockdown as the country reports its first deaths from COVID-19.
Wearing a camouflage uniform, President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke to soldiers in the Soweto township of Johannesburg, urging them to be a"force of kindness" and to"defend our people against coronavirus."
"This is unprecedented, not only in our democracy, but also in the history of our country, that we will have a lockdown for 21 days to go out and wage war against an invisible enemy, coronavirus," he said.Thursday that the president had submitted to a coronavirus test and the results had come back negative."The Presidency has deemed it necessary to make the test results public to reassure the nation that the President is in good health and continues with his duties," it said.
South Africa has among the world's highest rates of HIV infection and those immune-compromised individuals are especially vulnerable to the COVID-19 respiratory disease. The country also has a large number of people with tuberculosis. As NPR's Jason Beaubien,"It's not known exactly how COVID-19 would play out in TB patients but piling a second respiratory disease on top of TB could be devastating.
South Africa is the most industrialized country in Africa, but it is already in a recession, with unemployment at 29%. The 21-day lockdown was certain to exacerbate its economic woes.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
How to watch, live stream Coronavirus Task Force briefing for latest COVID-19 announcementsThe task force will update the American public Thursday evening as cases of the new coronavirus in the U.S. surpass 69,000.
Read more »
FEMA Chief prepared for COVID-19 challenge, former colleagues sayFor many, Gaynor is not known, but he is now the head of the agency tasked with leading the nation through one of the worst pandemics ever.
Read more »
SpaceX reportedly quarantines a dozen employees after 2 workers test positive for COVID-19 - Business InsiderSpaceX is performing a 'video review' to check the movements of one of the coronavirus-positive employees while they were on-site.
Read more »
Deaths jump across Europe, dashing hopes that worst of Covid-19 is overItaly has seen more fatalities than any other country, with latest figures showing that 6,820 people have died from the infection in barely a month.
Read more »
How Has COVID-19 Affected the 2020 Elections?The novel coronavirus has changed so much about our daily lives—but we still have to vote this year.
Read more »
Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg Says She Has Recovered From Mild Case of COVID-19Greta Thunberg to young people: 'We who don’t belong to a risk group have an enormous responsibility, our actions can be the difference between life and death for many others'
Read more »