South Africa is ‘fully capable’ of handling the coronavirus says Chinese ambassador


While the disease continues to spread internationally, with the World Health Organization categorising it as a high risk, ambassador Lin emphasises that there have been no confirmed cases in South Africa or of South African nationals living in China.
In a session with media on Tuesday, Lin gave updated statistics, saying the number of both “new confirmed and suspected cases has been declining continuously, the death toll remains low, and the cure rate has been increasing and rising significantly.”
He says the amount of new confirmed cases has dropped to 1886 per day, which is half the daily rate of two weeks ago. As of yesterday, 1,868 people have died of the disease in China, which is a mortality rate of about 2.5%. The ambassador compares this to the 10% mortality rate of the SARS coronavirus outbreak.
He says that the embassy is working closely with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the Department of Health, and believes that even if cases were to be confirmed, the country is “fully capable” of reacting well, despite other challenges in the national health system.
“I have confidence in South Africa’s medical facilities, rapid response mechanism, professionalism, and scientific response,” he says. While the ambassador concedes that the anxiety around the disease is normal and natural, he urges locals not to panic. He says the strategies in place to react to potential cases is to immediately “identify, isolate, quarantine, and deal with them.”
Cooperation through the African Center for Disease Control
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has donated one hundred million US Dollars to support efforts to curb the disease worldwide. President of Global Development at the Foundation, Christopher Elias, says developing vaccines is one of the top priorities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXUViIk8Fo&feature=youtu.be
Funds will also be available to help people living in poor areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Twenty million US Dollars will be set aside to help public health authorities in these regions to strengthen their emergency operation centres, implement effective disease surveillance efforts and improve their capacity to safely isolate and treat patients”.
African countries who are members of the African Union will be supported through the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) in collaboration with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (AFRICA CDC) and World Health Organisation (WHO-AFRO).
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in a statement suggests practical precautions such as good “hand hygiene and cough etiquette” and avoiding close contact with ill people. It recommends that travelers should self-report if they feel ill and that health practitioners and those in the travel industry should disseminate necessary health information.
The other main focus of preventing the spread of the virus is ongoing efforts to contain it within China. Ambassador Lin says that his country’s government has asked travel agencies to suspend their tours to and within China, and imposed strict screenings at ports of entry. South Africans and others who traveled to China for the Lunar New Year or other reasons are requested to stay there “for a while, not to come back soon.” He says that those who have returned are urged to stay in their homes for a week or more as a means of containment.
The latest NICD update states that 87 people have been tested in South Africa but all of them show no signs of the virus. The NICD says it remains on high alert and assures that its testing processes, are in line with international standards. The first African case of the virus was confirmed in Egypt over the weekend.-Health-e News
Author
-
Bibi-Aisha is an award-winning journalist who has worked in radio, television, online media and international development. She’s an Atlantic Fellow For Health Equity.
View all posts
Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Unless otherwise noted, you can republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license. Here’s what you need to know:
-
You have to credit Health-e News. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication.” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by Health-e News.” You must link the word “Health-e News” to the original URL of the story.
-
You must include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up link.
-
If you use canonical metadata, please use the Health-e News URL. For more information about canonical metadata, click here.
-
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week”)
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. Health-e News understands that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarise or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. You can find us on Twitter @HealthENews, Instagram @healthenews, and Facebook Health-e News Service.
You can grab HTML code for our stories easily. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our stories. You’ll find it with the other share buttons.
If you have any other questions, contact info@health-e.org.za.
South Africa is ‘fully capable’ of handling the coronavirus says Chinese ambassador
by Bibi-Aisha Wadvalla, Health-e News
February 19, 2020
MOST READ
Tembisa hospital open to the public, cause of fire under investigation
Gauteng Health’s cost-cutting measures could leave patients waiting over 4 months for care
Tembisa Hospital closed to new patients following emergency unit fire
Eastern Cape Health struggles to repair weather-damaged facilities
EDITOR'S PICKS
Related

Dirty and Broken Clinic Toilets An Act of Indignity

MSF condemns Novo Nordisk double standard in diabetes care

Report highlights hidden violence of child poverty in South Africa

Dirty and Broken Clinic Toilets An Act of Indignity

MSF condemns Novo Nordisk double standard in diabetes care
