South Africa has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on its soil, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2020) South Africa has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on its soil, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday.
"This morning, Thursday March 5, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that a suspected case of COVID-19 has tested positive," Mkhize tweeted.
The health minister added that the patient was a 38-year-old man who had recently returned from Italy.
Meanwhile, the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases has also confirmed the case.
"We confirm that a suspected case of #COVID19 has tested positive. This is not as a failure but as a success of our health systems to be able to detect and rapidly identify cases. The case has been self-isolated at home since the onset of symptoms and is receiving treatment," the institute tweeted.
South Africa is the seventh African country to confirm a coronavirus case on its soil. Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria and Senegal have also registered COVID-19 cases.
