Health Minister Doctor Zweli Mkhize has confirmed the first case of the coronavirus in South Africa.
The COVID-19 has claimed over 3 000 lives worldwide, with tens of thousand cases confirmed.
Mkhize tweet read, “This morning, Thursday, March 5, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that a suspected case of COVID-19 has tested positive.”
The statement said that the patient is a 38-year-old man who travelled from Italy with his wife. “They were part of a group of 10 people and they arrived back in South Africa on 1 March 2020.
“The patient consulted a private general practitioner on 3 March, with symptoms of fever, headache, malaise, a sore throat and a cough.”
The patient was self-isolated from 3 March. Mkhize explained that a tracer team has been deployed to KwaZulu-Natal with epidemiologists and clinicians from NICD, adding the doctor has been self-isolated as well.
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