Prophet Elisée Yao confirms he was amongst the tens of people that initially tested positive for Covid-19 in Bloemfontein, after coming into contact with five infected internationals at the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast which was hosted by Yao’s church in mid-March. 

The event was attended by hundreds of guests, notably members of parliament and the African Christian Democratic Party's (ACDP) Reverend Kenneth Meshoe and Steve Swartz, as well as Evangelist Angus Buchan. Yao candidly shares what his immediate thoughts were after he tested positive for Covid-19. 

Yao says when provincial health department officials called him and informed him he had tested positive, he says the first thing he did was acknowledge that “Lord you have my life in your hands. In death or life I shall praise you and I will not deny your name because of a sickness”. He says it’s by God’s grace that he was able to get through the whole ordeal. He stresses “the Coronavirus is not a death sentence, it’s a sickness.”

The leader of the Bloemfontein-based church says we need to test, isolate and prevent the spread of the disease as opposed to focusing on where the outbreak in the province emanated from. He reveals the test results for the internationals who were from Israel, the United States of America and France respectively, were released on 18 March, seven days after the two-day church gathering kicked off. The very next day the church leadership went to get tested and the provincial health department was notified regarding the situation a day after that. Yao says there has been a great deal of blame-shifting from the public as opposed to focusing on solutions to curb the outbreak.

Most recently 369 Clover employees as well as 12 taxi drivers and 7 cleaners were tested after a Clover employee in Bloemfontein tested positive for Covid-19. From the 388 tests carried out, five positive Covid-19 cases were identified. The individuals who tested positive have since been isolated and all those who were traced to have had contact with them, have been quarantined.

Production at Clover’s Bloemfontein factory was halted and a deep cleaning process was initiated. There are now 24 active cases of the Coronavirus in the Free State and six recorded deaths. 

OFM News