South Africa tightened coronavirus restrictions extending a curfew and limiting alcohol sales in the face of a surge in infections over the past two weeks.
The country, the worst affected by the pandemic on the continent, has seen the daily figures for new cases double over the past two weeks, while hospital admissions have climbed by nearly 60 per cent over the same period.
The spike comes as South Africa struggles to roll out its inoculation programme.
It announced at the weekend that it would discard two million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following contamination concerns at one of the US drugmaker’s sites.
The curfew has been extended by an hour and will run from 10:00 pm to 4:00 am while restaurants and bars will have to close an hour beforehand