No need to ban major events or public gatherings in SA yet – Mkhize
The health minister said he will be meeting with sports bodies and churches in order to inform them about the coronavirus outbreak.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Thursday said there was no need at this stage to ban major sporting events or religious gatherings in the country.
He said health authorities were dealing with a single case of a man who contracted the coronavirus while in Italy, and they were moving speedily to try and contain the spread of the virus.
However, Mkhize said he would be meeting with sports bodies and churches in order to inform them about the situation.
The minister was speaking at a briefing at Parliament on Thursday.
“We are going to be increasing on the area of awareness and are going to be discussing with the various groupings, particularly the sporting communities and churches, especially with the coming Easter gatherings and the international conference and hospitality industry. We need to be discussing with them to look at how we approach this issue. It’s obviously going to be a consultative process,” Mkhize said.
He said with only one case confirmed, it was too early to decide on bans or restrictions.
“We are not at that level where we should be talking about closing down schools and so on, we are at a point where we are taking precautions in the case of one instance where someone has been found to be positive,” he said.
Mkhize appealed to the public to cooperate with all efforts to reduce the spread of infection.
ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) doesn’t believe people infected with the coronavirus who haven’t started showing symptoms are driving the spread of the illness.
Asymptomatic carriers are people who have contracted the virus but were yet to show any symptoms of the COVID-19.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, from the WHO’s health emergencies programme, explained the virus is a respiratory pathogen that spreads through body fluids.
“If they were a major driver of transmission, it would have caused much larger numbers of cases,” Van Kerkhove said.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom said the number of lives the virus claims would largely depend on how the world responds to it.
“Political intervention, surgical intervention…it brings paradigm, that’s what we believe and then, of course, there should be technical competence too,” he said.
The global public health body stressed that the COVID-19 epidemic was a threat to all countries.
In other news – Inside AKA & daughter, Kairo Forbes’ beautiful lunch Date – Pictures
This combination of daddy-daughter between Mzansi rapper AKA aka Supa Mega and his beautiful daughter, Kairo is everything. He is truly proving he has amazing daddy duties with every moment he is sharing with his daughter.
AKA and Kairo Forbes had an amazing father and daughter bond time during a recent lunch date. continue reading
Source: EWN
