Four more South Africans have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, health minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Monday. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in SA to seven.
All were part of a group of 10 people who travelled together to Italy, which is at the heart of Europe’s outbreak with more than 7,300 cases and 365 deaths. The virus, known as Covid-19, causes a highly contagious and potentially deadly respiratory illness.
The rapid spread of the virus, which emerged in China in December, has sparked worldwide alarm, battering financial markets and disrupting global travel and trade. By Monday afternoon, there were more than 111,360 cases and 3,890 deaths in 91 countries and territories, including nine in Africa, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
“We are not surprised. We think the kind of exposure these members had, if it was enough to create an infection in one, all of them would have had a similar exposure,” said the minister, referring to the first SA patient confirmed last week, a 38-year old man from Hilton, Pietermaritzburg.
“What we are now focusing on is tracking all the contacts,” he said during a briefing by the government’s interministerial committee for dealing with the coronavirus. The committee includes the departments of health, international relations and co-operation, state security, home affairs, tourism, international relations and co-operation, co-operative governance and traditional affairs, as well as rural development, agriculture and land reform.
The four new coronavirus cases is a couple from uMgungundlovu in KwaZulu-Natal, and two men from Pietermaritzburg, he said. One of the group of 10 travellers had returned to London from Italy, and the government was still waiting for the test results from the last two members of the group who are in SA, the minister said.
A person in Vryburg, North West, who had not travelled with the group and initially tested positive for coronavirus, has now been confirmed negative, Mkhize said. A second test had to be conducted because the first test had been ambiguous, he said.
When asked for his view on the panic-buying that has stripped retailer and pharmacy shelves of hand-sanitising products in the wake of Thursday’s announcement of SA’s first coronavirus case, he said consumers should focus on regular hand-washing with soap and water.
“I want to just say that [the lack of] hand sanitisers is not really a problem. The basics are just soap and water. If people didn’t find hand sanitiser they must not feel they have lost out and are not safe,” he said.
Mkhize said the government has not yet taken any decisions about travel bans, or restrictions on visitors from countries hard-hit by the coronavirus.
Work was still under way to repatriate the SA citizens living in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak. Their quarantine locations in SA would be announced once they had been finalised, he said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.