{"id":382707,"date":"2020-03-18T10:04:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T08:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=382707"},"modified":"2020-03-18T10:04:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T08:04:42","slug":"south-african-coronavirus-cases-jumps-to-116-as-a-gautrain-exec-tests-positive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/382707\/south-african-coronavirus-cases-jumps-to-116-as-a-gautrain-exec-tests-positive\/","title":{"rendered":"South African coronavirus cases jumps to 116 as a Gautrain exec tests positive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health reports that the confirmed number of coronavirus cases in South Africa has now jumped to 116 cases.<\/p>\n<p>This means that a further 31 cases have been identified, following the overnight announcement that cases reached 85 in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The new cases include cases in Gauteng, KZN, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape, and includes six new cases of internal transmission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As part of tracking and tracing, we have collated background information on how these patients were infected. We will provide information to the public, so as to give a sense of how these local transmissions occur,&#8221; health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gautrain exposure<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Gautrain has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheGautrain\/status\/1239938937885466633\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>announced<\/strong><\/a> that an executive at the operating company, who travelled on the system, tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>It has conducted a deep clean of its Sandton and Park stations as a result.<\/p>\n<p>On 15 March, Bombela Operating Company was informed that a business unit director from the company tested positive for the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>The Gautrain stated that in the days prior to his diagnosis, the executive had visited the Bombela offices in Midrand, Gauteng, as well as the Gautrain Park and Sandton stations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a precautionary measure, all individuals who were in close contact with him have since been identified and have been advised to remain in self-isolation, as per WHO guidelines,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Sunday night, the BOC office, Sandton, and Park stations have been chemically decontaminated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The business unit director had travelled to South Africa from France, and is currently in self-isolation.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>These are the latest confirmed cases:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gauteng &#8211; 16<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 25 year old male who travelled to the UK<\/li>\n<li>A 45 year old male who travelled to Austria<\/li>\n<li>A 52 year old male who travelled to Austria and Italy<\/li>\n<li>A 49 year old female who travelled to Austria and Italy<\/li>\n<li>A 35 year old male who travelled to the UK and Netherlands<\/li>\n<li>A 34 year old female who travelled to the UK<\/li>\n<li>A 30 year old female who travelled to Switzerland and Austria<\/li>\n<li>A 36 year old female who travelled to Switzerland and Austria<\/li>\n<li>A 30 year old female who travelled to Italy<\/li>\n<li>A 35 year old male who travelled to Italy<\/li>\n<li>A 34 year old male who travelled to Italy<\/li>\n<li>A 37 year old male who travelled to Finland and France<\/li>\n<li><em>A 20 year old male with no international travel history<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A 3 year old male with no international travel history<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A 21 year old female with no international travel history<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A 71 year old female with no international travel history<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>KZN &#8211; 3<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 59 year old male who travelled to Austria and Italy<\/li>\n<li>A 54 year old male who travelled to Italy<\/li>\n<li>A 55 year old male who travelled to Italy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Mpumalanga &#8211; 2<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 64 year old male who travelled to Italy<\/li>\n<li><em>A 56 year old female with no international travel history<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Western Cape &#8211; 10<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 2 year old male who travelled to New Zealand<\/li>\n<li>A 51 year old male who travelled to Egypt and Dubai<\/li>\n<li>A 35 year old female who travelled to Switzerland and Dubai<\/li>\n<li>A 27 year old female who travelled to Switzerland and Dubai<\/li>\n<li>A 60 year old male who travelled to Portugal and the UK<\/li>\n<li>A 51 year old male who travelled to the UK<\/li>\n<li>A 54 year old female who travelled to Portugal and the UK<\/li>\n<li>A 51 year old male who travelled to the UK<\/li>\n<li>A 26 year old female who travelled to the UK<\/li>\n<li><em>A 68 year old male with no international travel history<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>South Africa has declared the Covid-19 pandemic a state of disaster, and is encouraging social distancing as a way to prevent the rapid spread of the virus among the population.<\/p>\n<p>Schools and universities will close from today (18 March), and many businesses are taking extraordinary measures to sanitise workplaces, or even have employees work from home.<\/p>\n<p>International and domestic travel is being discouraged, and gatherings of 100 people or more are being called off.<\/p>\n<p>Further measures include travel bans from high risk countries, and closing around half the country\u2019s ports of entry.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, National Treasury has encouraged businesses to remain open and continue operations as normal, as far as they can, to protect the economy by keeping economic activity up.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/382297\/social-distancing-what-south-africas-government-wants-you-to-avoid-and-what-is-safe-to-do\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Social distancing: what South Africa\u2019s government wants you to avoid, and what is safe to do<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health reports that the confirmed number of coronavirus cases in South Africa has now jumped to 116 cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":381935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-382707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382707"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382721,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382707\/revisions\/382721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}