South Africa hits 500,000 infections

FILE - This July 10, 2020 file photo shows Covid-19 patients being treated with oxygen at the Tshwane District Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa. South Africa has exceeded 500.000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, representing more than 50% of all reported cases in Africa's 54 countries. Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize announced the new total on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)
FILE - This July 10, 2020 file photo shows Covid-19 patients being treated with oxygen at the Tshwane District Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa. South Africa has exceeded 500.000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, representing more than 50% of all reported cases in Africa's 54 countries. Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize announced the new total on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa has surpassed 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, but President Cyril Ramaphosa said Sunday he sees “promising signs” the rapid growth of cases has stabilized and the country’s strained health system is managing to cope.

Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize announced 10,107 new cases Saturday night, bringing the country’s cumulative total to 503,290, including 8,153 deaths. South Africa has now tallied more than 50 percent of all reported coronavirus infections in Africa’s 54 countries.

With a population of about 58 million, South Africa has the fifth-highest number of cases in the world, behind the U.S., Brazil, Russia and India, all countries with significantly higher populations, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Experts said the true toll of the pandemic worldwide is much higher than confirmed cases, due to limited testing and other reasons.

Ramaphosa, in a letter to the nation Sunday, said despite the high number of confirmed cases, he sees positive developments.

“After a rapid rise in infections over the last two months, the daily increase in infections appears to be stabilizing,” Ramaphosa said. He said the number of new infections has slowed in the provinces of the Western Cape, which includes Cape Town, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, which hosts the major cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

South Africa’s hospitals have been stretched to the limit but in most provinces they are succeeding in providing treatment to COVID-19 patients, he said.

“The health system has so far had sufficient capacity to cope with the number of admissions,” Ramaphosa said of the hard-hit provinces of Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. He said, however, that in the Eastern Cape several public hospitals were overwhelmed and a specialist team has been deployed to help.

He said his government is working hard with “greatest urgency” to deliver adequate supplies of personal protective equipment to areas where shortages have been reported. South African authorities are also working to root out corruption in the purchase and distribution of medical equipment, he said.

“It is unconscionable that there are people who may be using this health crisis to unlawfully enrich themselves,” Ramaphosa said.

South Africa’s case fatality rate — the number of deaths as a proportion of confirmed cases — is at 1.6 percent, lower than the global average, Ramaphosa said.

“While South Africa has the fifth-highest number of total COVID-19 cases globally, we have only the 36th highest number of deaths as a proportion of the population,” Ramaphosa said. “For this, we are grateful to the work of our health professionals and the innovative treatments they have pioneered.”

South Africa also has a younger population than countries in Europe that were hit hard in the pandemic, and the virus kills elderly patients at a far higher rate than younger people.