WATCH: Durbanites prepare to leave Wuhan amid coronavirus outbreak

© Provided by Independent Media ENGLISH teacher Roxanne Rawlins is one of the South Africans who will be returning home from Wuhan. However, she has to leave her Ukrainian fiancé, Luri Prinich, behind. Picture: Facebook

Roxanne Rawlins, originally from Pinetown, said not knowing when the lockdown would end, coupled with the difficulty of getting supplies as a result of the restrictions, led her to decide to come back to South Africa.

She had said that she was relieved that she was coming home, but it was bitter-sweet as she had to leave behind her Ukrainian fiancé, Luri Prinich.

In a video she posted on Facebook she said: “I don’t have much more information than the public does at this stage. We’ve just watched the media release of the minister of health, and basically we will be evacuated in the next seven to 10 days.”

Rawlins said she was told that she would receive more documents to be signed and hoped that more details would be disclosed.

Joss Potgieter, from Durban, also said she decided to come back because they did not know when the lockdown would be over.

“I’m excited about the prospect of going home. The Chinese government has been wonderful and very proactive in helping us,” said Potgieter.

The Department of Health said the president had issued a directive to evacuate South Africans on Wednesday.

Speaking at a briefing in Johannesburg yesterday, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize said that of the 201 South Africans living in the evacuation area, 151 had asked to be repatriated. He said the process would begin in the next seven to 10 days and that the citizens under lockdown in Wuhan had been prioritised.

The repatriation process included evacuation, quarantine and reunification, which is guided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and South African laws and policy framework.

Mkhize said 84 quarantine sites had been inspected.

He said the entire group would be transported on a chartered aircraft under strict quarantine protocols.

“There will be a multi-disciplinary medical team on board the aircraft that will be responsible for pre- and in-flight screening and medical care,” he said.

He added that those who failed the screening would be referred back to the Chinese health system.

“All support staff coming into direct contact with the repatriates will also fall into the quarantine protocol,” Mkhize said.

The group would be quarantined for 21 days in the allocated zone, which would be guarded by the military.

“Within that perimeter the area will be declared a no-entry zone and a no-fly zone,” said Mkhize.

The acting director-general of Health, Anban Pillay, said the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) had created a check-list of everything that must be in place for the allocated hospitals to receive patients.

With regard to screening, Pillay said that when people arrived at an airport like OR Tambo International Airport, they were screened three times.

He said members of port health services boarded the aircraft and screened everyone.

“Within the arrivals area, they are then temperature scanned and anybody coming from a high-risk area completes a questionnaire,” said Pillay.

He added that this happened daily, and said some cases were referred to the NICD.

Mkhize said that as at February 26, 121 people had been tested for coronavirus in South Africa and all the results were negative.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, the chairperson of the South African Medical Association, said it was important to understand that while the people returning did not have the virus, it could take two to three days for symptoms to be displayed.

She said the WHO’s isolation period was 14 days, and South Africa had gone a step further by extending it to 21 days.

However, she said South Africa did not have proper facilities to quarantine such a large number of people.

Another issue, according to Coetzee, was the supply of protective gear.

“The correct masks that healthcare personnel need to use are out of stock worldwide, and they can only be used once,” she said.

Coetzee said she was not concerned about the group being repatriated because their names and details were known, but she was concerned about unknown people entering the country.

Professor Wolfgang Preiser, head of medical virology at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, said the quarantine measures announced yesterday were perfectly sufficient given what was currently known.

“If anything, they appear to err on the side of caution, which I believe is a good thing, given the uncertainty when dealing with something as new as the coronavirus outbreak,” he said.

Preiser said that the country’s level of preparedness was on par with that of many countries in Europe and North America.

However, he said we could not afford to relax and lower our guard in light of how other countries were struggling with Covid-19.

DA MP Darren Bergman, who had earlier called for South Africans to be repatriated from Wuhan, said he welcomed the decision.

“They’ve thought it out by taking necessary precautions in the evacuation plan and taking it in stages in terms of quarantine. That’s all we’ve been asking for, that they don’t rush it, that they communicate these plans and that they are in control of the plans,” said Bergman.

He said he hoped that the same precautions had been taken with others who had come into the country.

The Mercury