December 28th – On the 27th local time, the South African Ministry of Health announced that the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the country has exceeded 1 million.
South Africa was the first country in Africa to have more than one million confirmed cases, and just days ago, it confirmed that a mutant coronavirus, which spreads faster, had appeared in its territory.
According to BBC, Reuters and other media reports, it took two weeks for the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South Africa to increase from 800,000 to 900,000, while it took only nine days to increase from 900,000 to 1 million.
Hospitals and medical centers in the country are overcrowded, and many medical staff have been forced to cancel their vacations in response to the influx of patients.
South Africa’s Ministry of Health previously said that the COVID-19 virus in South Africa has mutated and is “making young and healthy people seriously ill”.
It is reported that the transmission speed and infectivity of newly discovered mutant viruses in South Africa have increased significantly, especially young people who were previously “not vulnerable to infection” are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than before.
At present, many governments have announced a travel ban on South Africa.
