The province, known for the port city of Cape Town, has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country.

Its health department said the elderly were more at risk of becoming seriously ill.

Testing will also focus of testing health care workers, it said.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said the decision was made because the province had a backlog of 27,000 samples.

He said vulnerable groups would be given priority so as to ensure test results come out quickly “so that we can ensure speedy interventions to save lives."

Western Cape has 24,657 of the 37,525 confirmed cases in South Africa.