The Covid-19 death toll has hit 2 529, while the number of cases now sits at 144 264.

The total number of recoveries is now 70 614 – a recovery rate of 48.9%.

Here’s what made the headlines today

President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed concern over people with Covid-19 being stigmatised within their communities. Ramaphosa, in his weekly newsletter, wrote that the stigma was likely fuelled by people’s fear of contracting the virus. He called on the public to be “guided by facts and not rumours”.

Gauteng is considering implementing tougher lockdowns on an intermittent basis, as the province gears up for its peak of Covid-19 cases. This could see the province closing the economy for a period of time.

A number of taxis had on Monday operated at 100% capacity – defying the government’s 70% capacity regulations. Tensions between taxi associations and the government are boiling over, with associations complaining that capacity restrictions are having severe financial impacts on the industry. Here is an explainer of the standoff between taxi associations and the government.

The Restaurants Association of SA has demanded that the government lift its ban on restaurants serving alcohol with sit-down meals. From Monday, restaurants can finally reopen since the beginning of the national lockdown. Restaurants have now, however, complained that the ban on serving alcohol will render most establishments unable to reopen because it will be infeasible from a business point of view.

Meanwhile, there appears to be confusion over whether hotels can reopen for leisure purposes. A hotel group and a tourism council said earlier today that hotels can operate for this purpose, saying that some hotels were already opened – but this was later retracted. While the Tourism Department warned that no leisure stayovers may take place, but this goes against new government regulations, which are said not to prohibit the reopening of the sector for leisure purposes.

As a fearsome spread of Covid-19 hits the Eastern Cape, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has called on the national government to consider imposing a Level 4 lockdown on the metro. Its acting mayor, Thsonono Buyeye, says residents have not been adhering to rules surrounding Covid-19, and that hospitals were being overwhelmed by an apparent increase in patients.

Seven more airports will be allowed to operate from Wednesday, the Department of Transport has said. At the start of Level 3 lockdown, only OR Tambo, King Shaka and Cape Town airports were allowed to open. Get the full list of reopened airports here.

International headlines

The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped half a million. In another grim milestone, the number of infections recorded worldwide rose to more than 10 million.

Six months since the start of the new coronavirus outbreak, the pandemic is “not even close to being over”, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned.

Nigeria said it was allowing children to go back to school to take exams and permitting cross-country travel despite fears over mounting coronavirus infections.

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– Compiled by Kerushun Pillay