Jennifer Mendoza
Research expert covering health, pharma and medtech
Coronavirus (COVID-19) in South Africa - statistics & facts
The coronaviruses are a family of viruses that get their name due to the crown-like spikes on their surfaces. They are known to cause illnesses ranging from a mild cold up to more severe respiratory diseases like the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The novel coronavirus (SARS-COV-2), publicly known as COVID-19, was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan by late December 2019. As of October 2021, almost two years after the virus was first recognized, it had already infected more than 244 million people around the world, and over 8.39 million on the African continent.
