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South Africans advised to stay in China amid coronavirus outbreak

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The Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, has advised South African nationals to stay in China rather than return home as the spread of the coronavirus continues.

Songtian briefed the media in Cape Town on efforts to combat the spread of the deadly virus.

“The government has (asked) all the travel agencies (to) suspend all the tour into both international and domestic tour group and has asked all the Chinese citizens, whoever wants to get out of China you have to fill in the form. The form to fill to tell us where are you from in the past two weeks, the family, the people surrounding him…”

WATCH: Chinese ambassador gives an update on efforts to combat the coronavirus:

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, continues with its surveillance activities and testing of individuals with symptoms of the 2019-nCoV.

As of 11 February 2020, 61 individuals have been tested for the virus and all tests have come back negative. Therefore, there is no confirmed case of the 2019-nCoV in South Africa.

The virus has claimed over 1 300 lives, mostly in China. The Chinese government says while 63 000 cases have been confirmed in China, only 27 of these are foreign nationals.

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