Two people with the new coronavirus have been charged with attempted murder in South Africa for failing to meet their two-week quarantine, Police Minister Bekhi Cele announced on Wednesday.

The Covid-19 epidemic is spreading very quickly in South Africa, the country on the African continent most affected. The Minister of Health on Wednesday identified 709 confirmed cases, against 554 twenty-four hours earlier.

In northern KwaZulu-Natal province, “two people have been charged with attempted murder for moving after being told not to do so,” Cele said at a press conference.

A 52-year-old man, who recently returned from abroad and tested positive for Covid-19, “continued to work in his hair salon,” said police spokesman Vish Naidoo.

A list of 27 people with whom he has been in contact, in the living room and during a wedding, is being established so that they can be tested.

In the second case, a tourist, who tested positive while on vacation in Kruger National Park (northeast), ignored orders to stay at his hotel and went to Saint Lucia (northeast). ) “Where he apparently interacted with an unknown number of people,” said Vish Naidoo.

“It’s not a joke”

The two suspects are currently being treated in hospital. “It is not a joke when we say that the law will be very harsh,” said the Minister of Police.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday ordered three-week confinement over the whole of South Africa, which is due to start on Friday.

“There should be no travel,” except to buy food, go to the pharmacy or a medical appointment, insisted Bekhi Cele. Violators will face a six-month prison sentence and a fine, or both, he said.