Coronavirus: Zweli warns against fake news
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has stressed South Africa still only has one confirmed case of coronavirus.
Mkhize briefed media, joined by the MEC of Health and Education in KZN at the Cowan House Prep School in Hilton.
He's been giving an update on the first confirmed coronavirus case in the country.
Health officials say the 38-year-old man only showed symptoms a few days after landing at King Shaka International Airport on Sunday.
The man is said to have flown home via Dubai Airport.
He says a team are currently working with the man who has been taken to Greys Hospital and have tested his family today at their home in Hilton.
READ: Health officials meeting Hilton residents following COVID-19 case
He says they are also dealing with most of the people the man was close to.
He says they have also decided to reopen the school.
Meanwhile Mkhize has advised against spreading false information saying he’s heard of cases in Addington and Limpopo that are untrue.
#CoronavirusInSA 18 people that have been in contact with the #Hilton man who tested positive for #COVIDー19 have been swabbed and tested and asked to self quarantine @ECR_Newswatch pic.twitter.com/jjTgQJ3fAD
— Nushera Raisa Soodyal (@nushera) March 6, 2020
"There is only one patient who is the first-ever South African to ever be confirmed inside the country."
"There is no other patient that would be in any other place. I know this because before the public knows, by rule I have to be the one who has to be informed and then as I did yesterday and brief the president and the members of cabinet before we move out into the public.
"Any of the stories that refer to cases that are in Limpopo University is fake, Tygerburg and Addington Hospital, is all fake news," adds Mkhize.
Hand sanitisers, antiseptic liquids, latex gloves and face masks are flying off the shelves in some stores - since yesterday's announcement of the coronavirus case.
#CoronavirusInSA: Hand sanitizers and disinfectants are flying off the shelves since the announcement of South Africa's first COVID-19 case yesterday. @ECR_Newswatch pic.twitter.com/Y1qZCghytN
— Lauren_Beukes39 (@LBeukes39) March 6, 2020
Newswatch visited several shops at two shopping centres in Umhlanga and found the sections stocking these products either empty or left with a few of the products.
Authorities having urging us not to panic but shopper Kajal Gidhari says the news of a confirmed case terrified her. "We are all scared,we don't know what's going to happen. We don't want to get the virus, we never expected it to hit here."
A woman says she never thought it would come to South Africa,"Hearing about the virus all over the world and now thinking that it is right here, in the same province that we are in. It is very scary because we don't know who is carrying what and where we are going to meet anyone."
Meanwhile retailer Clicks says there's been an increase in the sale of face masks, hand sanitisers and antiseptic liquid.
They assure customers their stores nationwide are being continuously restocked with all all these products.
