Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in South Africa rise to 24. From the 16 confirmed cases that were announced on Thursday, an additional eight cases have been confirmed, pushing the number up to 24.
The new cases had travelled to Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and or Greece. The development was announced by South Africa Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize while addressing the media outside the controversial Ranch Resort on Friday 13 March.
Mkhize added that tracing all of their contacts are currently underway. He also said that there had in fact been no local transmission after a Free State man who initially tested positive for the coronavirus, later tested negative.
Meanwhile, Kenya, Ghana, Gabon have recorded their first cases. The Ministry of Health of Kenya said that the patient is a Kenyan citizen who returned from the USA via London, United Kingdom on the 5th March 2020.
Ghana’s Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu confirmed that the two patients who tested positive for the virus had arrived from Norway and Turkey while the patient in Gabon was a Gabonese man who had recently entered the country from France.
Affected African states are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Togo, Senegal, Kenya, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Cameroon, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria.
More: SABC News