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Breaking: Six more cases of coronavirus in South Africa, bringing total to 13
12:07 CAT | 11 Mar 2020
FILE - South Africa's ealth minister Zweli Mkhize can be seen during a press briefing on updates on the coronavirus in South Africa at the Civitas building is Pretoria CBD, 9 March. [File photo: Jacques Nelles]
- Four cases have been confirmed in Gauteng, one in KwaZulu-Natal and one in the Western Cape, South Africa’s health minister Zweli Mkhize says
Six more cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in SA, taking the total to 13, health minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Wednesday morning.
The new cases are significant, because they include patients who were not part of the group of travellers who were identified as SA’s first seven Covid-19 cases. A party of 10 people travelled together to Italy, which is at the centre of Europe’s outbreak.
Contact tracing has begun for all the cases, said the minister, who is expected to provide more details at a later stage.
Four cases have been confirmed in Gauteng, one in KwaZulu-Natal and one in the Western Cape, said the minister.
The Gauteng patients include a 33-year-old woman who travelled to Italy, and returned to SA on March 1; a couple — a 34-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman who had travelled together to Germany and returned on March 9, and a 57-year-old man who had travelled to Austria and Italy and returned to SA on March 9.
The KwaZulu-Natal patient is a 40-year-old man who had travelled to Portugal and returned on March 7, while the Western Cape patient is a 36-year-old man who had travelled to multiple countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey, returning to SA on March 9.
“Some of these patients are already in hospital, while some, specifically those who are asymptomatic, are in self-quarantine.
“More information relating to these cases will be communicated. We also request that the privacy of the patients and the families continues to be observed by the media and members of the public,” Mkhize said.
The rapid spread of coronavirus, which emerged in China in December, has sparked worldwide alarm, battering financial markets and disrupting global travel and trade.
By Wednesday morning, there were more than 119,000 cases in 115 countries and territories, including 11 on the African continent, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
The coronavirus causes a disease called Covid-19, which is highly contagious. While most cases are mild, it can prove deadly, and the latest estimate from the World Health Organisation puts the mortality rate at 3.4%.
Source: Business Day Livve
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