Number of confirmed cases in South Africa: 1,749

Deaths: 13

Test conducted: 58 098

The number of coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, cases in South Africa increased to 1,749, with 13 reported deaths, health minister Zweli Mkhize confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.

This reflects an increase of 63 from Monday, after an increase of 31 on Sunday.

Concerns have been raised over the low levels of testing which has been completed in South Africa, which thus far have predominantly been completed by private laboratories.

Mkhize has bluntly warned against celebrating a relatively low apparent increases in the number of known cases of the novel coronavirus until widespread screening and testing is online.

The public health sector has promised to massively scale up its testing from this week, including launching a nation wide community testing drives for “hotspots”.