Coronavirus cases in South Africa have passed the 200,000 mark. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said four provinces were at risk of a surge, adding that a lockdown for the provinces was a possibility.
The affected provinces are Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Cases in the country are rising with thousands of new cases being reported daily.
However, the Ministry of Health says a bigger surge could have been experienced if the country had not gone into lockdown.
South Africa is in the process of easing restrictions in phases with the latest being the reopening of schools for more students this week.
The country is involved in the human trials for a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford.
Cases increasing in Africa
Africa is seeing coronavirus cases rapidly increasing and deaths rising, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In terms of overall numbers, Africa currently accounts for only a small proportion of total global cases, but the acceleration in rates of infection in some countries is of increasing concern to health authorities in the region.
While it took nearly 100 days for Africa to reach an initial 100,000 cases, it took only 18 days for that to double to 200,000.
It doubled again to 400,000 cases over the next 20 days.
