Health minister Zweli Mkhize says 151 of the about 201 citizens living in the coronavirus-hit area have asked to be retrieved
The SA government has yet to contact 34 people to determine whether they also want to be repatriated from Wuhan, China. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/AFP/BERND THISSENhe number of SA citizens wanting to be repatriated from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, has increased by 19 to 151, health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday.
In a media briefing in Johannesburg on Sunday that was attended by home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi, social development minister Lindiwe Zulu and officials from the department of international relations and the SA National Defence Force, Mkhize said of the about 201 South Africans living in the Wuhan area, 151 “have indicated their wish to be repatriated”.
“The defence force will deal with the modalities of transporting people and bringing them home. The military will decide where they land ... but the media won’t be allowed there.”“The people we are bringing in are South Africans who are healthy, they are not infected. We are taking precautions by quarantining them. They are not coming here infected,” Mkhize said.
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