Durban - On Thursday, the Health Ministry announced the country's first confirmed coronavirus case. Speaking during a press briefing, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, said a 38-year-old South African man had tested positive for coronavirus.
According to the Department of Health, the man who had travelled to Italy with his wife and was part of a group of 10 people who arrived in SA on March 1.
"The patient consulted a private practitioner on March 3 with symptoms of fever, headache, malaise (feeling weak), a sore throat and a cough. The practise nurse too swabs and delivered it to the lab. The patient has been self-isolating since March 3. The couple have two children," the department said.
- The man is from Hilton, in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
- He is married and has two children.
- He is currently in self-isolation.
- There is no confirmation on whether his family has contracted the virus.
- The patient did not show symptoms upon his arrival at the King Shaka International Airport on March 1.
- On March 3, he presented with symptoms and visited a local doctor's office in Hilton.
- His swabs were taken for testing and he was diagnosed with coronavirus.
- He has been in self-quarantine since March 3 but the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has been in contact with him on a regular basis.
- The Department of Health has sent a tracer team - with epidemiologists and clincians from the NICD - to KZN to monitor the patient and those who he may have come into contact with.
- The doctor who treated the patient has been placed in isolation.
- The Department of Health, together with the NICD, have the flight manifesto of those who travelled in the same airplane back to Durban and are contacting those who sat in close proximity to the patient.