If you came in contact with Covid-19 patients, please come forward

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has urged individuals who came in contact with those who tested positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19) to come forward so they can be screened and tested.

Mkhize was speaking at an interministerial committee briefing in Pretoria on Monday. The committee included Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) Naledi Pandor, Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Mkhize confirmed that another four people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total tally to seven.

READ MORE: Four more people test positive for coronavirus in SA

Fifteen people were identified to have come in contact with another patient who is 37 years old, and 12 people were identified to have come into contact with a 45-year-old male patient, the minister said.

Twenty-one people were identified to have come in contact with a 38-year-old man from Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, Mkhize said, adding that this patient was displaying “very mild symptoms and also he is improving already”.

“Many more contacts are being tested,” Mkhize said, adding that it was hoped that in the next 48 hours the other people who were part of the group of 10 which travelled to Italy would be tracked down.

Mkhize said the department of health was aware of concerns by those who had come into contact with the first individual who tested positive for the virus.

Mkhize said anyone who had spent a particular amount of time with a coronavirus patient would be warned and asked to avail themselves for testing, and, if positive, they would be asked to take up voluntary quarantine, stay indoors and avoid contact with other people.

“Voluntary quarantine worked a lot in China,” Mkhize said.

He added: “The fear for home quarantine is not necessary because it is advice that is given once you have tested positive.”

Mkhize urged those who had met or come into contact with a person who has tested positive for coronavirus to come forward because patients could forget all the people they had met.

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