Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has gone into quarantine after one of his core staff tested positive for Covid-19.
Mabuyane’s office announced on Saturday, that the core staff member was now self-isolating at home, and said Mabuyane spoke to the member and wished the staff member well during the period.
“Out of abundance of caution, Mabuyane will do a second Covid-19 test and while he will be waiting for his results, he will be quarantined at his home,” the office said.
However, in a statement, Mabuyane's spokesperson Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha said Mabuyane would continue to actively lead the Eastern Cape Government, the implementation of the province’s Covid-19 containment and mitigation strategy from his home, would interact with the members of the Executive Council virtually and would continue to chair the meetings of the Provincial Coronavirus Command Council virtually.
Sicwetsha said all the public activities of the Premier, including the weekly media briefing scheduled for Sunday (May 31) to update the people of the province about the status of the implementation of the Covid-19 containment and mitigation strategy.
He said they would also update on the school re-opening monitoring visit to ensure schools are implementing Covid-19 prevention measures, monitoring of the payment of social grants in line with the directives of the provincial Executive Council and visits to manufacturing plants in the economic hubs of the province are now cancelled.
According to the health department’s announcement on Saturday, Eastern Cape cases have increased by 176 which brings the total to 3759 cases.
The province recorded 1987 recoveries, and has lost another two patients to Covid-19, with a total number of deaths increased to 82.