Covid-19 coronavirus: South Africa prepares 1.5 million gravesites in Gauteng

A pupil's temperature is checked on returning to school in Johannesburg. Photo / AP

A health official in South Africa's new coronavirus hot spot of Gauteng province says authorities are preparing over 1.5 million gravesites as confirmed cases rise.

Bandile Masuku, a medical doctor and member of the province's executive council, said it was the public's responsibility to make sure the gravesites were not needed.

"It's an uncomfortable discussion," he said. Gauteng province includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria.

The number of confirmed virus cases in Gauteng is now over 71,000, or 33 per cent of South Africa's cases.

The country has more than 215,000 confirmed cases and is posting some of the world's highest daily totals of newly reported cases. The easing of lockdown measures continues.

South Africa's Health Minister Zweli Mkhize declared today that "we have now reached the surge."

The continent-wide total is over 509,000, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, after South Africa recorded another day of more than 10,000 confirmed cases. The country makes up 43 per cent of Africa's cases.

The true number of cases among Africa's 1.3 billion people is unknown as its 54 countries face a serious shortage of testing materials for the virus.

"A tremendous problem, a real crisis of access," the World Health Organisation's Africa chief, Matshidiso Moeti, said last week.

- AP