But the order will not apply to those providing essential services, including health care workers, police, and people involved in the supply of goods, including food.

All shops and businesses will be closed, except for pharmacies, laboratories, banks, essential financial and payment services, including the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, supermarkets, petrol stations and health care providers, Ramaphosa said.

“Individuals will not be allowed to leave their homes except under strictly controlled circumstances, such as to seek medical care, buy food, medicine and other supplies or collect a social grant,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address on Monday evening.

The army would be deployed to support the police in enforcing the new restrictions, he said.

South Africa is the third African country to impose a lockdown after Rwanda and Tunisia ordered their citizens to stay at home, except for essential economic activities, in response to the deadly virus.

The lockdown comes a week after Ramaphosa declared the coronavirus pandemic a national disaster and restricted international travel, prohibited gatherings of more than 100 people, and closed schools and other educational institutions to curb the contagion.

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South Africa, which has one of the better health care systems on the continent, has seen a spike in confirmed cases – going from 61 to 402 in just eight days. More than half of those patients are in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria, which had 207 cases as of Monday.

The country now has the most coronavirus cases in Africa, surpassing Egypt, which had reported 366 cases and 19 deaths as of Monday. South Africa has not reported any deaths from the disease so far.

The new infections have pushed the total number in Africa to more than 1,600, with more than 50 deaths as of Monday – a worrying trend for the continent’s fragile health care systems.

On Monday, Nigeria and Zimbabwe recorded their first fatalities from the virus. Algeria and Morocco are also among the continent’s worst-hit countries with 230 and 143 cases, respectively.

Experts have warned that a surge in cases of the pneumonia-like illness could overburden the health care systems in many African countries, and they say the rate of infection needs to be slowed so that people can get access to treatment.

“This number will continue to rise,” said Ramaphosa, warning that “a rapid rise in infections will stretch the country’s health services beyond what we can manage and many people will not be able to access the care they need”.

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He warned that “without decisive action, the number of people infected will rapidly increase from a few hundred to tens of thousands, and within a few weeks to hundreds of thousands”.

If that were to happen, Ramaphosa said it would be “extremely dangerous for a population like ours, with a large number of people with suppressed immunity because of HIV and TB, and high levels of poverty and malnutrition”.

He also announced a financial package, which is still under discussion, to cushion companies and vulnerable people from the impact of the virus. A Solidarity Fund has also been set up that will take donations from businesses, organisations and members of the public to help those affected by the crisis.