The very stark situation facing South Africa has been laid bare to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

"We are not returning to normal for the next two to three years," said Professor Shabir Madhi, of Wits University. He leads the public health sub-committee which advises South Africa's decision-makers.

Also, he said South Africa should prepare for waves of the pandemic over the next few years and acknowledge that occasional lockdowns will become a regular part of life.

The expectation of the South African situation worsening over the winter months was likely, but, Prof Madhi said, fewer people would get "severe" forms of the disease and herd immunity could start to kick in.

"But the bad news is we don't know who is spreading it".

All this came as the President Ramaphosa says he will start to ease the country's lockdown on May 1, because "our people need to eat."

"While a nationwide lockdown is probably the most effective way to contain the spread of the virus, it cannot be sustained indefinitely," Ramaphosa told the nation.

"Our people need to eat, they need to earn a living, companies need to be able to produce and to trade," he said.

South Africa has nearly 4000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, almost 1500 recoveries and 75 deaths.

In the UK government borrowing is soaring to the highest levels in peacetime history.

Bank of England interest-rate setter Jan Vlieghe said the damage was worse than anything Britain has experienced in the past 100 years at least.

The UK will issue $A348 billion of government debt between May and July - more than it had previously planned for the entire financial year.

On the numbers-front, European Union leaders agree to inject billions of euros of emergency aid into Europe's struggling economies.

More than $A900 billion of financial support would be released through existing mechanisms, to ease the economic pain caused by coronavirus, from June 1.

Meanwhile in the US, as the death toll nears 50,000, a Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis will be established to examine President Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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