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Free State coronavirus case retracted, 14 students from China test negative

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Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize has retracted earlier reports of a coronavirus case in the Free State and has announced that the 14 Limpopo students who returned from China recently have all tested negative.

Speaking during a media briefing in Polokwane, on Thursday, Mkhize has apologised for the wrong statistics following an earlier reported case in the Free State, reducing the number of people infected in the country from 17 to 16.

Minister Zweli Mkhize briefs the media:

The minister says the 14 students who also returned from a TVET college in China tested negative for the virus. He says that the government was not worried about the students.

“We knew that they were not at risk, however with mounting speculation, we felt that it was important for us just to take a necessary precaution, just to make sure that this matter is put to rest once and for all. Between our department and the provincial government of Limpopo we discussed the matter and all agreed that these students must actually be called, so that we do the test and allay the fears of the public on this matter.”

Repatriation of South Africans 

Mkhize says the South Africans who will be repatriated from Wuhan are not sick. “The idea of getting them to come back South Africa had nothing to do with concerns about the health system in China, nothing to do with the fact that they have been sick or anything like that, it was really on a humanitarian basis.”

He says there are three phases of the repatriation of the South Africans from Wuhan.

“The first one being that evacuation which means getting the aircraft, getting a crew that must go into Wuhan, get the South Africans and bring them back, the second one was the quarantine, which was bout ensuring that we could observe for the 14 days to see whether any of those South Africans could have by any chance got an infection and therefore we would subject to tests and so on. The third one is the reintegration in society; this one basically means that we would have been able to confirm that the individuals are free of the infections and are free to join their families. “

The Minister also confirmed that the Ranch Resort will be used as a quarantine facility for those who will be repatriated.

 

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