A number of South African students stuck in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, have opted to stay put instead of joining a group that would be repatriated home soon, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has said.
These students, who are virus-free but are in self-quarantine, are said to be scared of being harmed once they return home following threats against them on social media, press reports said on Monday.
The minister, however, did not cite this as the reason for the students’ decision to opt out of the rescue plan to be carried out by the South African National Defence Force, which has been tasked to repatriate some 184 South Africans.
Due to this development, it is unclear how many students would be coming back home now, Mkhize said.
“It’s not a big issue for us. We’ll bring those South Africans who want to come back. We’ll leave the others in China as per their wish,” Mkhize said.
Meanwhile, Mkhize said the government’s efforts to trace all the people who have been in contact with the country’s three confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus have started to yield positive results.
A couple from KwaZulu-Natal Province and a woman in Gauteng Province have tested positive for the virus.
The three were part of a group of 10 that travelled to Northern Italy and returned to South Africa on 1 March.
The couple’s children have so far tested negative, but would remain in self-quarantine, the minister said.
NM/jn/APA