No one in Free State has tested positive for Covid-19, said Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Thursday evening after stating earlier in the day that a 32-year-old male in the province had contracted the virus after meeting with a Chinese businessman.

Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize has warned that anyone who enters The Ranch Hotel Resort without authorisation during the period when South African citizens evacuated from Wuhan China are under quarantine at the venue will be kept there for observation. The luxury resort near Polokwane will be used to quarantine the group in the wake of Covid-19. (Photo: Chester Makana/Mukurukuru Media)

Mkhize was speaking at The Ranch Resort, where 121 South Africans will be isolated after being repatriated from Wuhan, China, this week. The resort is 25km from Polokwane, Limpopo.

The health minister said that the person from Free State had tested positive for Covid-19 in a private laboratory but tests in a government laboratory proved negative.

“We want to indicate that we withdraw that publicly and we regret that such a reference was made,” said Mkhize about his earlier statement.

“We want to indicate that we do not have a record of anyone, whether a businessman or not, who has got any connections with China here that has got an infection or that has got a possibility of infecting anybody.”

The health minister said that, while his administration had jumped the gun in Free State, cases of Covid-19 should only be confirmed after tests by government laboratories prove positive. He said he would meet representatives of private laboratories over the weekend to ensure they work together on the way forward.

By Thursday 12 March, there were 16 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in South Africa. Mkhize, who was speaking alongside a panel of ministers including Bheki Cele and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, on Thursday assured the public the government was working to reduce the spread of the virus in the country.

“Coronavirus is going to come whether we like it or not and we just need to be alert so that we know how to reduce the devastation from the virus,” he said.

“The real fight that’s confronting us is the fight of trying to reduce the number of infections, break the cycle of infection and make sure whoever is sick recovers and make sure South Africans can look back and say there was coronavirus but we survived.”

Mkhize reassured South Africans that the 121 citizens who are being repatriated from China – including 22 from Gauteng, 13 from Western Cape, six from Eastern Cape, 55 from Free State, nine from KwaZulu-Natal, seven from Limpopo, seven from Mpumalanga and two from North West – have not tested positive for Covid-19.

They are expected to be quarantined for at least 14 days.

“We want to indicate that none of them were ever reported sick. None of them were ever reporting positive for coronavirus and therefore the idea of getting them to come back to South Africa had nothing to with any concern about the healthcare system in China, had nothing to do with them being sick or anything like that. It was really on a humanitarian basis,” said the health minister.

He said the SANDF had organised their return and after looking at multiple venues across the country to isolate them as a precaution, had decided The Ranch Resort in Limpopo was most suitable. Mkhize warned that the public and the media would not be able to visit the venue after Thursday’s press briefing.

“This coronavirus is an issue of a public health emergency of international concern. The commander-in-chief has issued instructions that this must be managed by the army. Here is the law of the military,” said Mkhize.

“This means therefore that there’s no chance that anybody can mix with the people. We’re only observing them. They’re not sick. They’re not criminals.”

Mkhize said the government, through The Ranch Resort’s management, had negotiated conditions and benefits with staff to work while the 121 South Africans from China were isolated at the venue. Dlamini-Zuma said that only staff who had chosen to work would service the facility and that if any of them fell sick, they would be treated and provided with insurance if necessary.

“We never ever say it’s not good enough to save one life. If that’s what it calls on South Africa to do, to rescue its citizens, South Africans are ready,” said the minister, when asked about the cost of repatriating and isolating citizens living in China.

On its website, The Ranch Resort describes itself as a 150-room, four-star facility. While the ANC Youth League has said it will protest outside the venue, Mkhize said the government is engaging various stakeholders and there was no reason to worry.

“Coronavirus doesn’t look at your passport, doesn’t look at your nationality, doesn’t look at your circumstances whether you’re rich or poor, doesn’t care whether you’re within one metre of somebody sneezing, a droplet of infection will hit you,” said the health minister, warning citizens to take precautions to avoid getting infected.

Mkhize said 14 students from China who are studying at a TVET college in Limpopo were tested this week for Covid-19 and the test results on Thursday all came back negative.

“So those students have not been infected and we want to again say that it was done just to make sure… people must know that those students were not infected.” DM