In pictures: Police and soldiers conducted operations across SA, resulting in a number of incidents of abuse; airlines continue to bleed amid Covid-19 travel bans; and China slowly starts to re-open

March 28 — Bustling Alexandra became the first township in Johannesburg to record a confirmed case of Covid-19. Five people are under quarantine after being in “close contact with a confirmed case” in the impoverished township, near the affluent Sandton suburb.

March 30 — Just a week into SA’s Covid-19 lockdown and there were already troubling signs that the state may be unwittingly creating the circumstances for social upheaval — driven, not by the lockdown itself, but by law enforcement’s often violent attempts to implement it.

March 31 — Officials set up temporary shelters to accommodate homeless people during the nationwide lockdown. A man entertains himself by doing backflips at the Lucas van der Berg Sports Grounds in Pretoria, where hundreds of homeless people were moved overnight. The tents are sub-divided with three occupants per section. 

March 31 - Justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola ordered that any person arrested for a petty offence during the nationwide lockdown must be released and warned to appear in court on a later date. The petty crimes were not defined in the regulations, but would ordinarily be seen as those that do not constitute a physical threat or violence. These could include petty theft and traffic offences.

April 2 — President Cyril Ramaphosa chairs a virtual meeting of the National Command Council from his official residency Mahlamba Ndlopfu. The council meets three times a week and assesses the efficacy of the national lockdown that came into effect at midnight on Thursday, March 26 2020. 

April 2 — Throughout the course of the first week of a three-week lockdown, police operations were conducted throughout the country, including a raid on a church in Cape Town to remove refugees.

April 2 — As Covid-19 started emerging in a number of African countries, authorities in Kenya implemented restrictions to curb its spread. However, many in need of basic goods, waited at a food distribution point by a Kenyan voluntary group delivering flour, beans, milk, and juice for about 900 people at the Olympic Primary School in the Kibera slum, Nairobi.

April 2 — Towns and cities across SA came to a standstill amid the nationwide lockdown. Zebras are seen in their enclosure against the Pretoria skyline at the National Zoological Gardens, which is closed off to the general public.

April 2 — Street artists perform on the Charles Bridge in the early morning in Prague, where most activities have slowed down or come to a halt due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

April 2 — This aerial photo shows people visiting a night market in Shenyang in China’s northeastern Liaoning province. Certain businesses, such as factories, have gradually restarted operations after a lockdown.

April 3 — Airlines’ suffering became more evident this week as planes remained grounded amid travel bans in most countries. British Airways is in talks with unions to suspend more than 30,000 employees, while Boeing announced voluntary layoffs. Below: A man walks through a departure floor of the international terminal at Haneda airport in Tokyo.