The Health Department says there is no need for panic in South Africa following a spike in Covid-19 cases in China.
The department's Foster Mohale said they were closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation in China and other parts of the world, and would issue an alert if the country needed to take extra precautions.
"Thus, there is no need for the public to panic. We urge people to vaccinate and get booster shots to enhance their immunity against variants and sub-variants of the pandemic," Mohale said.
Several countries have since instituted travel restrictions following the surge in cases. To date, the US, South Korea, India, Italy, Japan, Taiwan and Australia have imposed Covid-19 tests for travellers from China. Some countries are claiming that there has not been enough information from Beijing about the number of cases reported.
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) met with Chinese officials to seek further information.
The WHO called on China to strengthen viral sequencing, clinical management and impact assessment, and expressed willingness to provide support in these areas, as well as on risk communications on vaccination to counter hesitancy.
“Chinese scientists are invited to engage more closely in WHO-led Covid-19 expert networks including the Covid-19 clinical management network. WHO has invited Chinese scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing at a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution on January 3,” WHO said in a statement.
As of last month, South Africa had fewer than 10 000 active Covid-19 cases with more than 102 000 deaths. To date, over four million people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the country.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the first reported Covid-19 case was on December 31, 2019, following a cluster of cases in Wuhan, China. South Africa's first Covid case was reported in KwaZulu-Natal in March 2020.