South Africa's Minister of Health Dr. Zweli Mkhize on Wednesday warned that the country was at "high" risk of a resurgence in coronavirus cases.

Mkhize said he arrived at the conclusion after an analysis of the country's epidemiological reports. Mkhize said that there had been an increase of 9.1 percent in new cases in the last seven days while there had been an increase of 10.7 percent in the last 14 days.

"As government, we have a responsibility to alert you when we see concerning trends. It would be irresponsible of us to ignore "small flames" that we see redeveloping in some parts of the country," Mkhize said.

Mkhize noted that such statements were not intended to instill fear in people rather they were geared towards heightening people's alertness and adherence to the existing health guidelines.

"You will recall that a few months ago when we witnessed these trends, it wasn't long before we started experiencing a burden in our health system."

"As we continue to monitor the development of a vaccine, the only weapon we possess as a country is our social behaviour and constant adherence to health protocols. All of us must take this responsibility and always encourage those around us."

The Western Cape, the region which emerged as the country's initial epicentre, had experienced a "marked increase" in the number of new cases in the last seven days, Mkhize said.

"The Province recorded a 42% increase in new infections. According to our resurgence plan, we define this significant spike in new cases in the Western Cape as a resurgence."

He added that provincial health authorities had identified certain clusters which were responsible for the increase in cases and a response was being put together based on investigations into them.

Based on such events, the government had directed all provinces to monitor the trends and come up with proper response strategies, including contact tracing and quarantine.

South Africa remains Africa's worst-affected country by the Covid-19 pandemic with a total of 708,359 confirmed cases and 18,741 deaths.

(With input from agencies)