We take you on the new coronavirus’s journey through the country — and tell you how it got it.
On March 5, life in South Africa as we know it, drastically changed. A virus brought into the country had the government lock down the country and shut down the economy. Six months later, the country has almost 670 000 confirmed cases, more than 16 000 people have died and the economy is in dire straits. In late September, the country finally started to open up again, but life is different. We stay two metres apart from each other, walk with masks and shop with hand sanitiser.
Bhekisisa has partnered with Media Hack to track down how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has travelled through South Africa. We take you on this journey with maps, a narrative and visualisations. We also provide you with information about the countries from where South Africa’s importations of the virus came.
You can scroll up and down to different days to track what’s happened when. As you scroll, you’ll see an interactive graph (from round about June) on your left that correlates with the date where you’re at to show you how many confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases there were in each province at the time.
This is our attempt at documenting the history of the COVID-19 epidemic — or at least part of it. We hope you can use it well. Click here for the full story.
This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Journalism in partnership with Media Hack.
Media Hack are a group of independent journalists who just love a good story. They're dedicated to quality journalism and the craft of digital storytelling. While they specialise in data-driven and narrative journalism, they’re a multi-talented bunch able to harness decades of journalism skills, combining them with state-of-the-art programming and presentation to create stories for all sorts of screens. They initiate their own media projects, but they also offer their services to civil society organisations and corporate social responsibility projects with a story to tell.
