On Saturday Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced that the number of South Africans who had contracted the coronavirus had risen by 14 since Friday to reach 38, all of whom had recently returned from abroad. Most of the countries they visited were in Europe though an increasing number seem to have been infected in the US. 

 It was announced in a post cabinet briefing on Thursday that there would be a special cabinet meeting on Sunday, March 15, to discuss the country’s response to the coronavirus. 

So far Pretoria has not imposed travel restrictions into South Africa or advised South Africans against travelling to any other countries which have experienced unusually high numbers of coronavirus infections.

Many other countries have introduced these kinds of restrictions. Among the most drastic have been those of the United States which this past week suspended all entry into the US of foreigners from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Area after earlier bans on entries from Iran and China – where the novel coronavirus originated. On Saturday the US added the UK and Ireland to the list of restricted countries. 

South African officials have said the government’s approach could change after Sunday’s cabinet meeting which is expected to approve restrictions on entry into South Africa from specific countries. These are likely to include European nations as most of the 38 confirmed cases of South Africans were those who had returned from Europe, though some had come from the US or China. 

Officials said the government would also issue an advisory to South Africans to avoid unnecessary travel to countries where the pandemic has been most intense. But an official said the advisory would not mention specific countries. Travel advisories are a sore point for Pretoria which has complained in the past about other countries issuing travel advisories cautioning them about South Africa because of crime. 

The Cabinet was also expected to announce a recommendation that all mass events, such as big sports matches in stadiums, should be cancelled or postponed. 

On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic, prompting many countries around the world to revise their entry policies.

South Africa’s diplomatic exchanges have been affected by the pandemic.

Diplomatic visits and exchanges have already been cancelled and face-to-face diplomacy was increasingly being replaced by remote meetings through video conferencing to avoid human contact and potential transmission of the virus.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven was this week scheduled to visit South Africa but his visit was cancelled to allow him to attend to the outbreak of the virus back in his country.

Next week’s planned visit of the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to co-chair the Bi-national Commission with SA’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor has been cancelled because of Covid-19, but officials said the meeting will go ahead via video conferencing.

Similarly, SADC had cancelled all scheduled physical meetings, but South African officials said these meetings of the regional body would go ahead via video.

Apart from its drastic restrictions on all visits from the Schengen Area, the UK, Ireland, China and Iran – with some exceptions for certain individual categories – the US has also cut back on most of its diplomatic travel exchanges with South Africa as well as with other countries.

 Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe visited the US recently, to meet the US under Secretary of Energy, Mark Menezes but the visit was curtailed because of the coronavirus.

A scheduled visit to the US by Police Minister Bheki Cele accompanied by US ambassador Lana Marks has been postponed indefinitely.

However, the US Navy is going ahead with a rare visit to South Africa by one of its warships while at the same time taking strict precautions such as cancelling planned public events on the ship and ensuring no-one recently in Europe is on board.

The destroyer USS Carney is due to arrive in Cape Town on Sunday March 15 from the Seychelles and is expected to remain until Tuesday when it will depart for the West African coast to participate in the US military exercise with West African countries called Operation Obangame Express.

“The visit of the USS Carney to South Africa is a historic event and a celebration of the friendship and excellent relationship between the United States and South Africa,” said Rob Mearkle, spokesperson for the US Embassy.

US Naval Forces Africa spokesperson Commander Kyle Raines told Daily Maverick that: “We can confirm that the USS Carney will undertake a port call in Cape Town March 15-17, the first port call of a U.S. naval ship since 2011. This visit serves to continue U.S. Naval Forces Africa’s effort to build global maritime partnerships with African nations in order to improve maritime safety and security in the region. It also shows the strengthened partnership between the United States and South Africa.”

It is further understood that the US Navy has also scaled down public access to the warship, as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The US had planned to make a big PR splash about the visit, inviting members of the public on board for tours and events – especially that the warship is going to be the first to dock in South Africa in nine years.

“There are no public ship tours or crew outreach events planned during this port call. The ship and its crew have been at sea since January and its most recent port call was in the Seychelles, which thus far has no reported cases of Covid-19. All crewmembers aboard will have been screened for any Covid-19 symptoms before disembarking. No US. military officers or distinguished visitors are travelling to South Africa for this event, including from AFRICOM or Europe.”

It is understood that a vice-admiral of the AFRICOM-US Military command who is based in Europe was scheduled to fly out to Cape Town to participate in the events on the US Carney but his visit has been cancelled.

 China’s ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian recently expressed his regret at the necessary cut backs in visits between his country and South Africa. He said at a media briefing that: “Now my worries are not about the epidemic in China but the wide and rapid spreading epidemic around the world. International travel is obviously not the best choice at this time, which will certainly have a negative impact on personnel exchanges between China and South Africa and the mutually beneficial cooperation in such areas as tourism, trade and investment as well. Since January this year, the number of Chinese tourists and business groups to South Africa and Africa has decreased dramatically.”

He nonetheless called on South Africans to work with China to defeat the coronavirus and officials said that the Chinese embassy would remain in close contact with the South African government at this time. 

Other embassies are also closely monitoring the pandemic and adjusting their travel and other arrangements accordingly. 

British High Commissioner to South Africa Nigel Casey said: “We are postponing non-essential, non-time sensitive events, and our visa and consular services are still operating as normal.” 

The Russian Embassy said it had not yet felt the impact of the coronavirus because it is too early.

An official said Russia is approaching the upcoming BRICS Summit preparations on a case by case basis but that much will depend on future developments.

Canada is understood to be repositioning and postponing some official travel while it reviews its travel advice.

The country has also shut down parliament and advised against all non-essential travel outside the country.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has put himself in quarantine at home after his wife tested positive for the coronavirus.

He told Canadians that he was exhibiting no symptoms and would continue to do his job from his home.

The Canadian government is also scaling back on diplomatic travel and postponing some events while reviewing its travel advice.

For Brazil, Ambassador Nedilson Jorge says his country has not yet cut back on diplomatic travel and announced that a delegation of officials and business people will be arriving in South Africa this week.

“We didn’t cancel because we don’t think it’s dangerous to come here,” Jorge said.

The Brazilian government has also not cancelled plans for delegations to attend events such as the Nampo agricultural fair later in the year.

“Our general approach here and elsewhere has not been to cancel visits or events but to be vigilant in case our host countries cancel events because we don’t want to waste a lot of money pulling out at the last minute,” he said. 

He added that Brazil was also pushing back some events until later in the year to avoid having to cancel them.

But the Government of Brazil has also been affected at the highest level as a member of President Jair Bolsanaro’s delegation on his visit to the US was tested positive for the coronavirus after holding meetings with a conservative forum and with Trump.

Bolsonaro was tested for the virus on Friday and has received a negative result.

Other Southern African countries have already begun to impose drastic restrictions on movement. 

On Saturday Namibian President Hage Geingob announced that two cases of Covid-19 infection had been confirmed in his country and announced a series of measures to control the virus, including cancelling the country’s Independence Celebrations due this week, diverting the funds for that event to fighting the virus and suspending inbound and outbound travel to and from Ethiopia, Qatar and Germany for 30 days. 

He also announced the suspension of all travel by government officials and of big gatherings and the lockdown of Windhoek Gymnasium. 

Meanwhile, Zambia’s Minister of Health Dr Chitalu Chilufya has restricted non-essential foreign travel and announced travel advisories to its citizens.

“Zambia has not recorded any case of Covid-19. However, because of the alertness of our surveillance system, we have investigated 28 alerts and all these have come out negative. Beyond this, more than 29,000 international travellers have been screened at our international airports in the past one month and of these, 2,300 arriving from high-risk countries have been identified and are being tracked for 14 days. We are further restricting non-essential foreign travels. For our international travellers including bus operators and passengers at various points of entry be it airports or bus stations, mandatory screening has been introduced,” said Dr Chilufya. DM