Durban - More than 300 people have been tested for coronavirus in South Africa, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.
He was addressing reporters after a meeting the community of Cowan House, the school in Hilton where a parent was diagnosed with Covid-19.
He lashed out at “fake news” that had circulated and warned that they could prompt unnecessary panic.
“South Africa has had only one case,” he stressed. “We are on top of the situation.”
He said if it came to the point where more facilities were needed, his department would act.
“But not yet.”
The school, a private institution for day children and boarders, did not need to close, the minister said.
The parent, who had been part of a group of 10 on a group trip to Italy, had arrived at King Shaka International Airport, having travelled to South Africa via Dubai. The other nine had all been tracked down and tested while quarantined in their homes, he said.
One was from the Mount Edgecombe 2 estate. A resident said they had been asked to stop using finger screen identities and use swipe cards instead.
The Cowan House parent was in Pietermaritzburg’s Grey’s Hospital, one of four isolation facilities for Covid-19 in KwaZulu-Natal, and was due to be discharged soon. Another eight people, including his doctor, were tested and are in voluntary quarantine because of secondary contact.
A report from Nedbank said an employee in Durban who had been on the Italy trip had come into contact with business associates at two separate meetings.
The bank’s chief risk officer, Trevor Adams, said the employee had been in contact with several staff members after attending meetings at the Pine Walk branch in Pinetown and at the Kingsmead Campus, near the Durban CBD.
As a precaution, Nedbank has informed the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and placed all employees who had contact with the staff member on self-quarantine.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, who also addressed reporters, said the doctor who tested the man who had tested positive had not had the necessary gear when she conducted the test and was not aware of what she was dealing with until the results came back.
“However, she understood the protocols.”
She added that the person being tested at hospital in Verulam had entered the country from India.
Osindisweni Hospital near Verulam confirmed that it had a patient in isolation after being admitted early yesterday.
Medical manager Dr O Francis said while the necessary tests were being run, the patient’s travel history was considered and, as a precaution, the person was isolated. Other patients at the hospital were urged to wear masks.
Francis said there was no confirmed case of coronavirus and that people should not panic.
Simelane-Zulu said the other three hospitals that had been made isolation centres were Addington in Durban, Ngwelezana near Empangeni and Manguzi in the far north of the province.
She said all patients identified as being in need of treatment would end up in these facilities.
Simelane-Zulu said people who felt they needed testing should make state clinics, or their general practitioners, their first port of call. Once they disclose their reason for seeking testing, they would immediately be isolated.
Momentum Health’s Damian McHugh said the company would cover coronavirus in the same way as ‘flu.
“It is not an exclusion. If the treatment requires hospitalisation the member will be covered in accordance with the scheme’s hospitalisation rules.
“In cases like this, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) gets involved and while patients can choose private hospital treatment, NICD can recommend the treatment to manage the condition.
“All our members have access to private hospital cover for the treatment of Covid-19,” he said.
McHugh went on to say that private hospitals had to follow NICD protocols to admit members.
“The process to be tested is that all samples will be tested in state labs. If infection is confirmed, then the NICD gets involved to ensure all patients contacts are interviewed and managed.
“Quarantine will be done immediately but not all quarantine will necessarily be done in hospital. The majority of cases will probably be dealt with (in the home). There are certain members who could be worse off if they contract the virus. Anyone whose immune system is weak is at a greater risk.”
Discovery has reportedly created a benefit that will provide cover to pay for diagnostics as well as treatment in and out of hospital.
Chief executive Ryan Noach told 702 Radio that schemes were mandated to have capital reserves and solvency reserves:
“Those are there to support members in cases of crisis.”
Also at the Cowan House briefing was Kerrigan McCarthy, consultant pathologist at the NICD.
After being told that Independent on Saturday staff had been unable to connect to the coronavirus hotline, and had fielded calls from the public about not being able to get through, she said it had been “swamped”.
“We are in the process of contracting an agency to support us,” she said.
Mkhize rejected reports that SANational Defence Force members had said they would not fly to Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus first surfaced, to bring South African expatriates home.
He said the flight required logistics planning and that “within seven to 10 days” from last Sunday, the operation would happen.
At a World Health Organisation press briefing late yesterday director general Tedros Adhanem Ghebreyesus confirmed there were close to 100 000 reported cases worldwide, with 2 706 new cases reported from 47 countries in the previous 24 hours.
The global death toll is reported by Johns Hopkins University to be more than 3 400.