…As Greeks move 1,000 migrants from camps to hotels amid outbreak***
South Africa’s health minister on Tuesday reported a rise in coronavirus cases of 143 over the past day, taking the total to 2,415.
The Health Minister, Zwelini Mkhize, said this at a news conference at Johannesburg airport.
Mkhize provided no update on the number of deaths, which a day earlier stood at 27.
The total number of tests conducted so far was 87,022.
“We still have a long way to go. This is not a sprint, this is a marathon,’’ he said.
He added that a donation of equipment from China that had just landed would help South Africa “in fighting this invisible enemy called COVID-19”.
These included 10,000 N95 masks and disposable gloves, 50,000 surgical disposable masks – enough for about 6-8 weeks – as well as 2,000 medical protective gowns and goggles.
Also read: Ecuadorian government removes 771 bodies from virus-hit city
At the same news conference, Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said she was aware of complaints of allegedly racist treatment of South Africans in China, and that “we believe we can accept the commitment of … China to address these concerns”.
Several African countries have demanded that China address their concerns that Africans, in particular in the southern city of Guangzhou, are being mistreated and harassed.
Cases of COVID-19 – the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus – in South Africa are creeping up, but not at the explosive rate that was initially feared.
The rate of new infections has slowed significantly since President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a nationwide lockdown on March 27 and extended it to the end of April.
Africa’s most industrialised nation still has the most confirmed coronavirus cases on the continent, which has registered a total of 5,741 so far.
In a bid to counteract the economic fallout from the lockdown, South Africa’s central bank slashed its main lending rate by another 100 basis points on Tuesday, to a record-low 4.25 per cent, after moving forward its monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for May.
In the meantime, about 1,000 vulnerable refugees from the overcrowded camps on the Greek islands are being moved to hotels temporarily due to the dangers posed by the novel coronavirus, the European Union’s Interior Commissioner said on Tuesday.
The migrants are to be moved from the camps on Lesbos and other islands to empty hotels, Ylva Johansson wrote on Twitter.
Johansson thanked the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organisation for Migration, the Greek government and the EU Commission for their efforts to make this possible.
She also praised the generosity of the Greek people.
“EU values in practice, even in such trying times,” Johansson wrote in her tweet.
Some people were transferred to the vacant hotels on the islands and the mainland on Tuesday and the others will follow on Wednesday, a European spokesman said.
Some 10,000 migrants have already been brought from the islands to mainland Greece during the first three months of the year, according to the Greek Ministry for Migration.
Under the agreement between the EU and Turkey, migrants can only be sent back to Turkey from the islands.
Amid the epidemic, politicians and NGOs have repeatedly called for the camps to be cleared completely, given the overcrowding and poor hygiene conditions.
Although there is officially only space in the camps on Lesbos, Samos, Kos, Leros and Chios for 7,000 migrants, some 40,000 migrants are presently living there.
