South Africa has confirmed another 43 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,505, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Friday.

Mkhize also reported two more deaths; an 80-year-old man who died on 1 April and an 81-year-old woman who died on 2 April.

He said there were two more cases that were under investigation and, if confirmed, would take the country’s official Covid-19 death to nine.

Mkhize said there was a question over the value of testing people, when over 50,000 tests had revealed a relatively small 1,500 cases.

“It is worth the effort even if we test several million people but only find a couple of thousand cases … because the devastation of a Covid-19 outbreak that is unmanaged and uncontrolled is far worse than the cost of testing many people,” he said. “We need many more people being tested.”