Coronavirus: South Africa prepares for "national crisis"

Text by: RFI Follow

If the figures of people infected with the coronavirus in South Africa remain for the moment little comparable to the number of cases observed in other countries of the world (twenty cases for more than 15,000 cases in Italy), President Cyril Ramaphosa fears the appearance of a "national crisis". To limit the damage, the country is taking precautions now.

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With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Claire Bargelès

South Africa has yet to enact measures to restrict movement. It is therefore always possible to enter and leave the country freely, after having submitted to a temperature measurement at international airports. Only a few schools have closed due to suspicious cases, but many events have been canceled.

From the Cape Town jazz festival, to the big AfrikaBurn gathering, to the Bushfire festival in Swaziland, the organizers had to postpone or cancel these events. There will also be no graduation this month for the University of Cape Town and some sporting events are not to be outdone, such as the World Football Summit, scheduled for Durban, which has also been canceled.

The faithful of the church of Zion, they do not yet know if they will be able to go to the annual pilgrimage of Moria, at Easter. The number of participants exceeds one million each year. As for the 122 South African citizens volunteering to be repatriated from Wuhan , they are expected to return this weekend. A hotel in the Limpopo region, in the north of the country, has been prepared to accommodate them and will be supervised by the army during quarantine, to avoid any intrusion.

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• South Africa
• Cyril Ramaphosa
• Health and Medicine
• Coronavirus

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