In a statement on Wednesday morning, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced the big jump in confirmed infections yet since his statement less than 10 hours earlier.

South Africa now has 116 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

“This means that there has been an increase of 31 new cases from yesterday’s announcement,” said the minister.

The details of the cases were as follows:

GAUTENG: 16

-A 25-year-old male who travelled to the UK

-A 45-year-old male who travelled to Austria

-A 52-year-old male who travelled to Austria and Italy

-A 49-year-old female who travelled to Austria and Italy

-A 35-year-old male who travelled to the UK and Netherlands -A 34 year old female who travelled to the UK

-A 30-year-old female who travelled to Switzerland and Austria – A 36-year-old female who travelled to Switzerland and Austria -A 30 year old female who travelled to Italy -A 35-year-old male who travelled to Italy

-A 34-year-old male who travelled to Italy -A 37-year-old male who travelled to Finland and France -A 20 year old male with no international travel history -A 3 year old male with no international travel history

-A 21-year-old female with no international travel history -A 71 year old female with no international travel history ALSO READ: This is how much a Covid-19 test costs in SA and how it works KWAZULU-NATAL:3

-A 59-year-old male who travelled to Austria and Italy -A 54 year old male who travelled to Italy

-A 55-year-old male who travelled to Italy MPUMALANGA:2

-A 64-year-old male who travelled to Italy

-A 56-year-old female with no international travel history WESTERN CAPE:10

-A 2-year-old male who travelled to New Zealand

-A 51-year-old male who travelled to Egypt an Dubai

-A 35-year-old female who travelled to Switzerland and Dubai -A 27 year old female who travelled to Switzerland and Dubai -A 60-year-old male who travelled to Portugal and the UK

-A 51-year-old male who travelled to the UK -A 54-year-old female who travelled to Portugal and the UK -A 51 year old male who travelled to the UK

-A 26-year-old female who travelled to the UK

-A 68-year-old male with no international travel history.

As part of tracking and tracing, they had collated background information on how these patients were infected. “We will provide information to the public, so as to give a sense of how these local transmissions occur. We will however not disclose full details as this information is subject to patient confidentiality which we are bound by.”

Mkhize had announced just before midnight on Tuesday that South Africa had 85 confirmed cases of Covid-19, an increase of 23 from Monday’s announcement.

The breakdown per province was as follows earlier:



GAUTENG: 14

-A 45-year-old male who had travelled to Belgium, UK , France and the US

-A 37-year-old male who had travelled to the UK

-A 54-year-old female who had travelled to the USA

-A 52-year-old male who had travelled to the UK

-A 25-year-old male who travelled to the UK

-A 52-year-old female who had travelled to Italy

-A 59-year-old male who travelled to the UK and Dubai

-A 57-year-old male who travelled to the USA

-A 60-year-old male who travelled to the USA

-A 37-year-old female who travelled to Italy and Dubai

-A 21-year-old female with no travel history

-A 34-year-old male with no international travel history

-A 26-year-old female with no international travel history

-A 32-year-old female with no international travel history

KWAZULU-NATAL: 4

-A 48-year-old male who travelled to Dubai

-A 59-year-old female with no international travel history

-A 5-year-old with no international travel history

-A 3-year-old male with no international travel history



WESTERN CAPE: 5

-A 3-year-old male who travelled to the UK

-A 58-year-old male who travelled to the UK and Austria

-A 2-year-old male with no international travel

-A 62-year-old female who travelled to the UK and Ethiopia

-A 71-year-old female who travelled to the UK



Mkhize said it was “notable” that there were six further cases of local transmission.

He said he’d been forced to make a decision on the correct approach regarding releasing results.

“I must inform the public that there was a debate with clinicians, epidemiologists, virologists on when we, as government, must release results to the public.

“These experts raised an issue of an ethical obligation to immediately alert patients as soon as the results become available. This therefore means that by the time a confirmation test is conducted in public laboratories, patients would have been notified of their initial results. This clarification is important because, as government, we had announced to the public that all positive results will be verified through our public laboratories and the NICD.”

He said that in an effort to ensure transparency, they had decided to release results as they were submitted by both public and private labs, even if this meant that it would mean having to reverse an announcement if the confirmation proved the initial result was a false positive.

“In instances where our confirmation tests give contrary results, we will inform the public, make reference to that specific result previously announced and give the outcome of the confirmation results.

“Whilst we respect that private laboratories have the capacity to test and on their own issue results, our intention and approach is to ensure that there is credibility in the information and results given to the public.

“Whilst we appreciate the importance of being transparent with South Africans, we will not do so irresponsibly and not take into account all clinical and any other broader implications of the information we give to you.”

Wuhan results

A group of 114 South Africans who were trapped in Wuhan, China, since last year, and then repatriated at the instruction of President Cyril Ramaphosa to a hotel in Limpopo, were also tested. All of them proved to be free of the virus, said the minister.

“It gives us great pleasure to announce to South Africans that all the citizens from Wuhan were tested and their results came back negative for Covid-19.

“We continue to keep them in quarantine for the prescribed period and will thereafter initiate the process of reunifying them with the community.”

The group was put into precautionary quarantine on Saturday at the Protea Ranch Hotel near Polokwane, and are still under lockdown by the SAPS and the military. They are being observed for at least two to three weeks before being given the all-clear.

Mkhize said last week that the first 14 days would be the most critical, as two weeks is known to be the period that the disease can lie dormant without someone showing any symptoms. They would add a week just to be safe.

The minister added that during their 21 days at the hotel the facilities would be secured and patrolled by both the army and the police, not because the people were infected or being treated as criminals, but merely to ensure that the quarantine is observed conscientiously.

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