Cape Town – South Africa’s home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has tested positive for Covid-19, reports said on Saturday.
According to the television broadcasting channel eNCA, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said that Motsoaledi was in good health and was currently in self-isolation.
This comes after scientists confirmed on Thursday that a new variant had been detected in the country.
A report by EWN said that Gungubele had wished Motsoaledi a speedy recovery.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) indicated on Friday that Gauteng continued to be the epicentre of newly reported Covid-19 cases, as the country recorded 2 828 new Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths, according to IOL.
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The new strain, named Omicron, has been blamed for the surge in infections.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was Saturday expected to meet with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) amid growing concerns over the spike in new Covid-19 infections.
The presidency said the meeting was important as it was set to look at the developments on the virus.
Meanwhile, a number of countries have imposed travel bans on South Africa after the discovery of the new variant.
Britain was the first to slap a flight ban from countries in southern Africa, just hours after South Africa revealed it had detected the variant which has multiple mutations.
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Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the US among others on Friday joined Britain in restricting flights from the region.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, also proposed a complete suspension of flights to and from southern Africa until there was a ‘clear understanding about the danger’ posed by the new variant.
However, the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday urged against travel curbs at this stage.
South Africa has the highest pandemic numbers in Africa, notching up around 2.95 million cases, of which 89 657 have been fatal.
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Additional reporting by AFP
