COVID-19 cases in South Africa by province

The first COVID-19 confirmed case in South Africa was reported on the 5th of March in KwaZulu Natal. Soon after, a few other cases were identified, in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng provinces, as direct contacts of patient zero. On the 11th of March, the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), as cases of infection increased in many parts of the world at the same time.

This visualisation tracks the number of confirmed positive cases in South Africa per province, as reported by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). The visualisation shows that while KwaZulu Natal saw the first case of COVID-19 in South Africa, the virus has spread to other provinces within a few days. Although there are now confirmed cases in every province, the visualisation demonstrates how quickly Gauteng province became South Africa's epicentre of the pandemic.

Notes:

1. The ‘Uncategorised’ bar on the graph represents all those cases that are missing detailed location information, an issue that has been flagged by the Health Minister in recent reports. The number of categorised cases will change as cases are allocated to provinces accordingly.
2. The visualisation will be updated as new information becomes available.