This as the number of cases in the rest of the country has risen to 38 - the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. 

On Saturday, the Health Department led by Minister Zweli Mkhize, announced 14 more people had tested positive for COVID-19, the bulk of which are in Gauteng. 

Mkhize announced on Monday that a suspected case of the novel coronavirus in the North West has turned out to be negative. He stated the results follows after at least two medical tests that were conducted on the suspected person from Vryburg in the province. 

On Thursday Mkhize announced the Free State had recorded the first case of local transmission of COVID-19, but later backtracked, after results came back negative, indicating the man was initially tested at a local private lab in an attempt to decentralise testing, however, confirmation from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) determined the result was in fact negative evoking a sigh of relief from those in the province.

The new cases are of people who travelled to the United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Germany respectively of late. 

A quick scan of John Hopkins University’s centre for Systems Science and Engineering reveals the above-mentioned countries are amongst the top 15 countries with the highest number of cases globally at present.

Meanwhile, South Africans are hopeful President Cyril Ramaphosa, will announce the introduction of travel bans, following an urgent Cabinet meeting on Sunday. The meeting will be held to discuss introducing measures to curb the number of infections in the country.

More than 156 000 people worldwide including celebrities, sports stars and politicians have tested positive for COVID-19, while just under 6 000 people have died. The number of recoveries, however, is teetering on 74 000, a sign that the disease can be managed.

On Saturday, a chartered aircraft carrying a total of 146 South Africans from Wuhan City landed in Polokwane. It has been confirmed the South African Airways (SAA) aircraft, carried 114 civilians, evacuated from the coronavirus epicentre in China this week, 14 members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and 18 medical personnel. All of them are now at the Ranch Resort under Protea Hotels, where they will be quarantined for a period of between 14-21 days.

OFM News