Cape Town, Mar 29 (IANS): South Africa has seen a growing number of health workers infected with COVID-19, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.

As of Saturday night, the country has reported 1,187 cases, an increase of 17 in the last 24 hours, the minister said, adding 13 of the new patients are 13 health workers, Xinhua news agency reported..

A 70-year-old doctor in Free State province is now under intensive care after contracting the coronavirus, the minister said, voicing concern over the growing number of cases in medical staff.

"It must be emphasized that none of these health workers were infected by patients that they were treating," Mkhize said, without giving more details on how they got infected.

According to the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), most of the cases in the country involved people who had travelled to Europe, the United States or the Middle East.

The majority of those without international travel history have had recent contact with people who travelled abroad, the NICD said.

So far, South Africa has the largest number of COVID-19 cases on the African continent, with one coronavirus-related death reported. The country began a 21-day national lockdown from midnight on Thursday.