The South Africa government in a press statement today has said the country has recorded additional 34 new confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus. With today’s figure means the country now has 150 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Read the full statement:
LATEST CONFIRMED CASES OF COVID-19
19 March 2020
As announced by President MC Ramaphosa, we wish to confirm that as of today, South Africa now has 150 confirmed cases of COVID-19. This means there has been an increase of 34 positive cases from the announcement earlier today.
The breakdown per province is as follows:
GAUTENG: 15
-A 41 year old female who had travelled to DRC
-A 43 year old female who had travelled to the UK
-A 54 year old female who had travelled to the UK
-A 58 year old male who had travelled to the UK
-A 38 year old male who had travelled to France
-A 70 year old female who had travelled to USA
– A 30 year old male who had travelled to Spain
-A 45 year old male who had travelled to DRC
-A 85 year old male who had travelled to Switzerland
-A 64 year old male who had travelled to Vietnam and Thailand
-A 41 year old male who had travelled to Netherlands
-A 37 year old female with no international travel history
-A 23 year old male with no contact details on lab form, information being obtained from the private doctor
-A 5 year old female with no contact details on lab form, information being obtained from the private doctor
-A 44 year old male with no contact details on lab form, information being obtained from the private doctor
KWAZULU-NATAL:3
-A 71 year old female who had travelled to the UK
-A 26 year old male who had travelled to Mexico and USA
-A 29 year old female with no contact details on lab form, information being obtained from private doctor
MPUMALANGA:1
-A 56 year old female who had travelled to France
WESTERN CAPE:15
-A 53 year old female who had travelled to the UK
-A 30 year old male who had travelled to Netherlands and Qatar
-A 45 year old male who had travelled to Mexico
-A 70 year old female who had travelled to USA
-A 25 year old female who travelled to the UK
-A 37 year old female who travelled to the UK
-A 43 year old female who travelled to USA
-A 31 year old male who travelled to the Spain and Netherlands
-A 53 year old female who travelled to the Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany
-A 22 year old female who travelled to the UK
-A 63 year old male who travelled to the Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany
-A 22 year old female who travelled to Spain and Netherlands
-A 32 year old male who travelled to USA
-A 37 year old male with no contact details on lab form,
-A 53 year old male with no international travel history
MEETING WITH PRIVATE LABORATORIES
This afternoon, the Minister of Health held an urgent teleconference with Chief Executive Officers of Private Laboratories that are performing the COVID-19 tests. At this meeting, the private laboratories expressed their commitment and willingness to work hand in hand with government to perform the COVID-19 tests. The meeting acknowledged that in order to allow for consistent reporting of cases, all information will be sent to the NICD in real time. There will be collaboration and proper compilation of the results, thereafter it will be released to the public.
As it will be noted in the above breakdown, we have stated that the contact details of some of the confirmed cases were not included in the laboratory form. This therefore puts more pressure on the NICD and provinces to track down the private doctor that the patient consulted, in order to obtain the patient’s details. The meeting therefore resolved that the Minister must plead with all doctors to complete the forms comprehensively so that all the patient’s information is immediately available. This will assist in ensuring that the confirmed results are also analysed in terms of geo
mapping, to facilitate urgent tracing of contacts of the patient.
FREE STATE FIRST CONFIRMED CASES
We also wish to advise South Africans that the Free State Province now has its first confirmed cases. The patients are being informed as we speak, some have already been taken into quarantine by the Provincial Government. We will fully disclose the numbers of these cases tomorrow, once all the patients are aware.
RECOVERIES
We are pleased to also inform the public that we are now seeing recoveries of previously reported COVID-19 cases. We are in the process of conducting further confirmation tests and medical examinations then we formally inform the public on the numbers of recoveries. At this stage, most of the patients are recovering well.
WESTERN CAPE MEC AND MINISTRY STAFF IN SELF QUARANTINE
This morning I spoke to the Western Cape Health MEC, Dr Mbombo. She informed me that she, together with her Ministry staff had gone into self-quarantine as a precaution, after she came into contact with the French Consul General, who announced that he had tested positive.
The MEC is feeling strong and has not exhibited any symptoms. She is now waiting to receive her results that will determine her way forward. We wish her well as we know that she has been crisscrossing the Western Cape province to ensure the state of preparedness of our health facilities for COVID-19 patients requiring admission.
Dr Zwelini Mkhize
Minister of Health
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