President Cyril Ramaphosa announced further regulations in his national address on Monday including a nationwide lockdown starting Thursday 26 March.
These regulations include the continued prohibiting of gatherings of more than 100 people, restricting international travel, closing schools, and educational institutions and restricting the sale of alcohol after 6 pm.
Temporary shelters for homeless people, sites for quarantine and self-isolation sites will be identified for those who can’t do it at home.
International travellers who landed in SA from high-risk countries after 9 March have to stay in their hotels for a 14-day quarantine.
In the past week, the global number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased from 160 000 to 340 000.
South Africa on the other hand, has seen an increase from 61 confirmed cases to 402 in just one week.
President Ramaphosa added that if decisive action is not taken the number of infected people will rapidly rise from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands.
He also warned South Africans that individuals responsible for spreading fake news about COVID-19 will be liable for prosecution and no person with a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection may refuse medical examinations.
