A woman who tested positive for the coronavirus in Gauteng was discharged from Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital on Tuesday.  

Gauteng health spokesperson Kwara Kekana confirmed that the woman was discharged late in the afternoon. She was the second person in the country to test positive.

The 39-year-old woman formed part of a group of travellers who returned from Italy on 1 March. Six other people in the group also tested positive.

Kekana said the woman would remain under observation by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and hospital staff while she is isolated at home. 

“We are still waiting for the final results from [the] NICD while she is at home. They are going to continue monitoring her,” she said. 

Inspection

Meanwhile, on Wednesday morning, Gauteng Premier David Makhura and Health MEC Bandile Masuku conducted an inspection of Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria.

The hospital has been identified as one of the three facilities for coronavirus patients. The other two are Charlotte Maxeke and Tembisa.

Briefing the premier and MEC at the designated isolation ward, the head of infectious diseases at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Professor Anton Stoltz, said they used negative pressure inside the ward and that it was safe.

“When we come in here, we are fully dressed up,” he added.

Stoltz said they also tried to move the number of particles inside the room and that there was enough air entering the room. 

“It’s negative pressure (inside the ward). Nothing goes to the hospital when we see the patients here if we think they’re ill. [For example,] over the weekend I admitted a patient. She tested negative but still she had to stay in here until I have proven that and then she can go out,” the professor said.

South Africa has 13 cases, including six new ones which Mkhize announced on Wednesday morning.

A South African National Defence Force (SANDF) team boarded a chartered flight from OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday night so that they could repatriate 122 South Africans from Wuhan, China. 

They are expected back in the country on Friday.