SA has become the seventh country in Africa to confirm a case of the latest coronavirus outbreak that started in China late in 2019 and has rapidly spread around the globe, wreaking economic havoc and battering financial markets.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Thursday that an SA man who had travelled to Italy with his wife had contracted Covid-19.
Italy is the epicentre of the epidemic in Europe, with more than 3,000 cases and 107 people dead, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The rapid spread of the virus in the country has led to the closure of schools and the cancellation of sporting events, including a Six Nations rugby match against England.
Mkhize said the patient was part of a party of 10 that had travelled to Italy, and was asymptomatic when he arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on March 1. Two days later he consulted a GP with symptoms of fever, headache, malaise, a sore throat and cough, and was transferred to a designated hospital after he was confirmed as having Covid-19. His wife and two children are in self-quarantine, as is the doctor.
Covid-19 has infected more than 95,000 people and killed about 3,300 in more than 80 countries and territories since it broke out in Wuhan, China, in December. Egypt was the first African country to announce a coronavirus case, on February 14, and was swiftly followed by Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia and Morocco.
Two days after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) cut interest rates in response to the growing threat of the outbreak, there was little sign of the global anxiety subsiding, with European stocks continuing to drop on Thursday.
The rand, which rallied after the Fed cut on Tuesday, had dropped 2.27% to R15.60/$ by 9pm, its biggest loss in more than four months. HSBC, one of the biggest banks in Europe, evacuated staff from part of its London headquarters after an employee tested positive, the Financial Times reported. "The markets are on edge, with many questioning the ability of the government to deal with a breakout in SA efficiently," said Bianca Botes, treasury partner at Peregrine Treasury Solutions.
While the latest developments are worrying, "we must not allow panic to set in", Mkhize said in parliament during a debate on the epidemic.
Briefing reporters shortly afterwards, he was at pains to emphasise that SA has only one confirmed case and authorities are doing all they can to contain the disease. A tracer team has been sent to KwaZulu-Natal to identify the patient’s contacts, in line with WHO guidelines.
"What we have learnt from China is that speed, decisiveness and acting in unison is important," he said. China imposed aggressive measures to try to contain the virus, placing Wuhan, the city at the heart of the epidemic, on lockdown, restricting travel and extending the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. Its strategy appears to have borne fruit as the number of new cases reported in China has steadily dropped over the past fortnight.
There is no immediate risk of the coronavirus spreading in the general community, said Cheryl Cohen, head of the Centre for Respiratory Disease and Meningitis at the National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD). People who have been in contact with SA’s first coronavirus patient are in self-quarantine at home, and medical staff are in daily contact to check their health status, Cohen said.
Earlier this week, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the coronavirus outbreak could still be contained if countries move quickly and aggressively to limit its spread. About 3.4% of confirmed cases have proven fatal, significantly higher than the mortality rate for seasonal flu, which is less than 1%, he said.
"Covid-19 spreads less efficiently than flu; transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick; it causes more severe illness than flu; there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics; and it can be contained," he said.
With Lindiwe Tsobo
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