Cape Town – Knysna Ward 10 councillor Peter Myers and his wife Candace are feeling “absolutely normal” following their recovery after testing positive for Covid-19.
Myers and his wife tested positive when they arrived back in South Africa after attending their godson’s wedding in Switzerland and a few days of sightseeing in Prague and Vienna.
Myers said he and his wife had “completely recovered” after a very bad case of the flu – high fever, body aches and chills which lasted just over a week.
“We are humbled by all the support we received from family and friends, and of course will adhere strictly to the national lockdown. The sooner we take this seriously and adhere to the lockdown the quicker we will get out of this. Any delay or refusal to adhere to the lockdown will have devastating consequences and no one will be able to escape these consequences,” he said.
Another recovered patient in the province, who asked to remain anonymous, said when he returned from an overseas trip the last thing on his mind was that he might have the virus and his family would be infected.
“As soon as we suspected I had the coronavirus, we went into self-isolation. We need to realise that we can easily beat this pandemic with discipline in staying home, maintaining a distance from other people, and exercising good hygiene in terms of washing hands.”
The patient said there were also benefits to isolation, like spending time with family.
“It was quite tough initially to be completely isolated from our other loved ones, but Skype, WhatsApp and telephone calls made it a lot easier.
The National Department of Health recorded 31 recoveries. More than 31 000 tests had been conducted.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday welcomed the more than 100 South Africans, who had evacuated from China, as they concluded a 14-day mandatory quarantine at the Ranch Resort in Limpopo province.
The president also declared the Ranch Resort in Limpopo, which accommodated quarantined South African students, and the government crew which went to the Chinese city of Wuhan to evacuate them, a green zone free of coronavirus.
“You were able to beat coronavirus in China because you were under lockdown. Unless we are disciplined like you have been, we will be consumed by this virus,” Ramaphosa told them.