Diko cautions South Africans over a COVID-19 total lockdown ‘fake news’

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Spokesperson Khusela Diko says there is no truth in rumours going around that government will announce a total lockdown on Saturday night due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In a tweet, Diko cautioned South Africans against spreading fake news.

She says the National Command Council will be meeting on Sunday to assess the implementation of directives to combat the spread of the virus after the president’s announcement, last Sunday, of a national state of disaster.

The last time President Ramaphosa addressed the nation was last week Sunday when he announced a raft of measures to try and contain the spread of the COVID-19 in South Africa, including a national state of disaster.

In the video below, President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation: 

Addressing the nation, he said this will help in combating the spread of the virus.

Ramaphosa said the cabinet had decided to enforce travel bans on foreign nationals from high-risk countries such as Italy, Iran, Spain, South Korea, the United States, UK, Germany and China.

The ban was effective from 18 March 2020.

According to the Department of Health’s latest update, South Africa now has 240 confirmed cases in total which broke out in China in November 2019. The virus has since spread to different countries globally.

The video below outlines safety measures to deal with the coronavirus:

Ramaphosa also announced that South African citizens that have visited high-risk countries in the last 20 days would undergo heavy testing and will be required to self-isolate for 20 days. He further urged South Africans to limit contact with high-risk countries.

Visas to be revoked

Ramaphosa said that 45 of the country’s 72 ports of entries will also be shut down.

Cabinet has also decided to revoke visas of foreign nationals from high-risk countries and that South Africa will not be issuing visas to foreigners from those countries.

Foreign nationals, who have visited high-risk countries, in the last 20 days will also be denied visas.

Ramaphosa has also encouraged South Africans to practice social distancing. Group gatherings of more than 100 people have been banned. Public celebrations such as the commemoration of public holidays have also been canceled and President Ramaphosa has urged citizens organising private gatherings to exercise caution.

Schools have since closed from Wednesday 18 March and will reopen after the Easter holidays. Schooling will be extended with an extra week in the second term to catch-up on time lost due to the pandemic.

Below is a Live Tracking of the cases, death toll and other information, updated daily: