Coronavirus: South Africa’s first case passed through airport with no symptoms
- The man returned from Italy on March 1, then went into self-isolation after he began experiencing a fever, headache and sore throat
- Italy has been the country worst hit by the virus in Europe, with at least 107 deaths and 3,089 cases registered in the past two weeks
The health ministry said the patient was a 38-year-old male who travelled to Italy with his wife, passed through the main O.R. Tambo airport in Johannesburg when they returned home and then went to the eastern region of KwaZulu-Natal.
They were part of a group of 10 people and they arrived back in South Africa on March 1, 2020, it added.
The patient has been in self-isolation since March 3, when he visited a doctor complaining of a fever, headache, malaise, sore throat and cough, the ministry said. The couple has two children.
Health authorities in South Africa said they would start a search for contacts of the patient.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Twitter that the coronavirus case represented not a failure, but “a success of our health systems to be able to detect and rapidly identify cases”.
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There have been more than a dozen cases reported in Northern Africa, but South Africa is only the third sub-Saharan African country to have a confirmed case. The West African countries of Nigeria and Senegal have reported one and four cases respectively.
African countries started introducing preventive measures soon after the coronavirus outbreak started in China.
Zimbabwe, which borders South Africa, this week decided that travellers from coronavirus-affected countries will not be allowed into the country unless they have a medical certificate showing that they have tested negative for the disease.
“Those who fail to produce the required document will be immediately deported,” Health Minister Obadiah Moyo said on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, Italy’s bishops on Thursday ordered that Masses not be held during the week in churches in areas of the north of the country affected by the coronavirus outbreak, a step believed to be unprecedented.
It was believed to be the first time such a draconian step had been taken in Italy, the European country worst hit so far by the coronavirus outbreak. Masses were not even cancelled when the plague struck Milan in the 17th century.
A statement from the bishops conference said Masses would not be held from Monday to Saturday in churches in the Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna region as well as in the provinces of Savona in the Liguria region and Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region.
The statement did not mention Masses on Sunday, when according to Church teaching Catholics are obliged to attend Mass unless they are ill.
The move comes during the season of Lent, where more Catholics go to weekday Mass than at other times during the year.
The Italian government has ordered the closure of cinemas and theatres and has told Italians not to shake hands or hug each other. Schools and universities have been closed until March 15.
Italy to ban kisses and handshakes as coronavirus death toll hits 107
The Vatican has said the 83-year-old pope, who cancelled a Lent retreat for the first time in his papacy, is currently suffering from a cold that is “without symptoms related to other pathologies”.
Additional reporting by Reuters
