112 South Africans from China are Covid-19 free, set to return to families - Ramaphosa

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Polokwane – President Cyril Ramaphosa has released 112 people who tested negative for Covid-19 from the Ranch Resort in Limpopo after they spent two weeks in quarantine. This is as the president declared the Ranch Resort in Limpopo, which accommodated quarantined South African students, and the government crew which went to the Chinese city of Wuhan to evacuate them, a green zone free of coronavirus (Covid-19) The group of students were brought back into the country in an operation led by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) earlier this month. It has been a long journey for the Wuhan students after they spent 21 days in isolation in the epicenter city, and then another 14 days at the Ranch Resort. “We are now able to declare the Ranch a green zone, it has been a red zone all along as we had put the students, the cabin crew of the flight that brought them, as well as the military medical officers in quarantine together with the staff that works here. This place was declared a red zone, and now we have gone past the 14 days of quarantine and everybody who is in this facility has been tested and found to be negative of coronavirus,” said Ramaphosa at the Polokwane resort.

“[Health Minister Zweli] Dr Mkhize has said this is now a green zone, in that nobody in this facility has contracted coronavirus. We took good precautions to put our students, the crew and everybody else from China under quarantine to make sure no coronavirus was brought to South Africa from China.”

Ramaphosa said he was going to meet the students and other people who had been quarantined.

After speaking to journalists, the presidential motorcade drove into the vast resort where numerous national and provincial authorities were accompanying Ramaphosa.

The group of South Africans was placed under quarantine at the resort from March 14 after they were repatriated from Wuhan in the Hubei Province of the People’s Republic of China following the outbreak of the Covid-19.

After the Limpopo engagement, the Presidency said Ramaphosa will return to Pretoria to chair a virtual meeting of the National Command Council that coordinates the national emergency response on Covid-19.

African News Agency (ANA)