South Africa has stepped up travel bans as the coronavirus continued to spread at an alarming pace and the country confirmed its first instances of local transmission.
In a statement by the department of health, the number of people infected with the coronavirus rose to 85 on Tuesday from 62 the day before. Eight of the new cases hadn’t travelled outside the country. Four children under the age of six were diagnosed with the disease.
The department also said it would begin releasing coronavirus test results conducted by private laboratories as soon as they were available, rather than wait for confirmation by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. The decision was taken to improve transparency, and the public would be informed should the institute produce contrary results, it said.
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On Sunday, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the coronavirus a national disaster and imposed travel bans on people who had visited eight of the hardest-hit nations – the U.S., the U.K., China, Spain, Italy, Iran, South Korea and Germany. As of this moment, the restriction has been extended to Switzerland and France.
The International Relations & Cooperation Department said that no applications for visas by foreign travellers from high-risk countries will be approved. Similarly, the department said visas already issued are revoked with immediate effect for travellers that are not yet in South Africa.
President Ramaphosa has also shut schools, 35 of the nation’s land ports, and banned public gatherings of more than 100 people. The government has said it will consider imposing a state of emergency if those restrictions don’t have the desired effect.
South Africa’s total number of cases is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost 200 infections have been confirmed. According to Health Ministry data, the province of Gauteng has the highest case-count with 44 so far.
