CORONAVIRUS: FIRST CASE CONFIRMED IN SA

MANZINI – Caught off- guard! Fear has gripped the country following the first case of coronavirus being confirmed yesterday in South Africa.

The coronavirus, also known as COVID–19, was yesterday confirmed by the Ministry of Health in South Africa.
This immediately saw locals sharing the news on social media platforms wherein South Africa’s Health Ministry confirmed its first case of the deadly virus.

Travelled

“The patient is a 38-year-old male who travelled to Italy with his wife. They were part of a group of 10 people and they arrived back in South Africa on March 1, 2020,” the SA Health Ministry said.

The confirmation of the virus in South Africa resulted in many being concerned with their planned travel to the neighbouring country while others shared their concerns on whether the country was ready to deal with the epidemic that has killed thousands of people across a number of continents; mostly being Asia.

Government, through the Ministry of Health, made a request in Parliament for a budget to deal with the outbreak.
Also, several institutions that deal with travelling in between South Africa and Eswatini admitted that they were not prepared.
 One of them was the Swaziland Interstate Transport Association (SITA), which confirmed that it had been caught unprepared on how to deal with the coronavirus.

This was disclosed by Bambumuti Sithole, who is the Chairman of SITA. Sithole, who is also the former Member of Parliament for Ludzeludze Constituency, said the confirmation of the first case in South Africa was something they were not prepared for. “We did not have any strategy such that when we approached the Minister of Health (Senator Lizzy Nkosi), she informed us that government could only assist from the border gates through screening the patients,” Sithole said.

He said the association had not even planned on getting surgical masks to provide to their clients who board the kombis and midi-buses between the country and various cities in South Africa.

 Temperature

Sithole said he would contact his counterparts in South Africa today to arrange that the South African association engage the Ministry of Health of that republic to have a hand scan to check commuters for body temperature.  This, he said, could lead to those found to be having symptoms of the virus being stopped from boarding the public service vehicles and taken to quarantine areas.
“We don’t actually have to bring those who are sick into the country at all,” Sithole said.

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