Covid-19 Updates

Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku says Mzansi can overcome this pandemic

Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku remains hopeful the country will overcome the Covid-19 pandemic with limited casualties. We believe we can overcome, and will overcome with not many casualties,” Masuku said during the handover of personal protective equipment (PPE) in Sandton on Tuesday. The Bank of China donated 30,000 PPE units to the department to boost the fight against the coronavirus.

“We are hoping this equipment will add to what we are already busy with in terms of procuring and creating enough stock for our health-care workers. We are very appreciative of this gesture. We hope to get more and to share insights about how we deal with and treat patients who have Covid-19,” said Masuku.

Bandile Masuku

Masuku confirmed that a man who had contracted Covid-19 had died at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital and said more details would be provided by health minister Zweli Mkhize.
Consul general for the Chinese government Tang Zhongdong said the equipment was donated because SA had supported China when it was fighting the pandemic. At the moment South Africa is fighting the spread of the virus and we fully support the country. A friend in need is a friend indeed,” said Zhongdong.

He denied reports that Africans were being mistreated and forced into quarantine in China. We treat the lives of foreigners in China the same as our own people,” he said. Zhongdong said the Chinese government was expected to meet African embassy representatives to resolve the matter.

Masuku said the lockdown extension allowed the health department additional time to contain the virus. He said tests and screening were not a “free for all”, and people had to meet certain criteria to be tested for Covid-19.

In other news – Somizi released on R1,500 bail over Fikile Mbalula Covid-19 case

Media personality Somizi Mhlongo was arrested and granted bail at the weekend after transport minister Fikile Mbalula laid a charge against him. On Friday, Mbalula opened a case against Mhlongo at the Sandton police station on a charge of breaching disaster-management regulations related to “information dissemination and misinformation”.

Somizi and Fikile Mbalula

Hours before President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that SA’s Covid-19 lockdown would be extended until the end of April, Mhlongo had asserted in an Instagram video that Mbalula had given him a heads-up about the extension. Read more

Source: Timeslive