Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Tuesday pleaded with congregants, who attended The Divine Restoration Church Ministries conference in the Free State earlier this month, to avail themselves to authorities as government scrambles to trace the spread of COVID-19 in the province which as of today has 29 confirmed cases.
Mkhize said five international travelers who attended the conference from the 9th to the 14th of March tested positive for the virus.
“We would like to request all those who were part of that gathering to come forth and contact the Department of Health in the Free State so that they can be assisted and we can therefore test them,” Mkhize said.
“We really want to make this as a public call. The regulations really do allow us at a certain point that if an individual does not come forth and has been a contact and we think his situation might pose a risk, we can actually publish the name.”
Mkhize also announced that South Africa now has 554 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – an increase of 152 new cases from Monday’s announcement.
