Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Friday welcomed the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) declaration of the Coronavirus as a global public health emergency and assured South Africans that, to date, there are no confirmed cases of the virus detected in the country.

He added that there were no immediate plans to evacuate South Africans from China, as his department was confident in China’s ability to effectively manage the public health emergency.

The Coronavirus is believed to have originated from animals and was first detected in Wuhan City, in China on December 31 last year.

According to the WHO, there is currently no vaccine and the treatment remains supportive.

“We remain vigilant on the developments regarding the movements and the behaviour of the viral infection across the world, and we continue to engage the international fraternity to better understand how this virus behaves and its health effects,” said Dr Mkhize.

There are reports of two South Africans who are under a 14-day quarantine in Tianjin, in Northern China after arriving from Wuhan City, a neighbouring municipality.

Symptoms are non-specific to the virus itself and include fever, cough, a runny nose and sneezing. Occasionally, the virus can cause complications of shortness of breath, multi-organ failure and death.

To date, the new death toll stands at 213, as more countries announced plans to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan.

Mkhize said that he had convened a high level inter-ministerial meeting on Thursday with the Ministries of Tourism; Police; State Security; Home Affairs; and International Relations and Cooperation, as well as the Department of Health, and officials from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Mkhize said an emergency operating centre is active at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation has established a 24 hour hotline for all South Africans living in Wuhan City to contact the SA embassy in China.

South Africans can call the embassy in Beijing on +86 135 0105 9041 or the South African consulate in Shanghai +86 159 0045 4282.

He said assured South Africans that national laboratories are in place to conduct the tests for the virus and added that all  port health services at points of entry have been provided with detectors to make sure that no one enters the country without been screened.

He said the Multi-sectoral National Outbreak Response Team will reconvene on Friday to revise the Standard Operating Procedures in response to the WHO announcement.

The hospitals designated to manage the virus are Polokwane hospital; Rob Ferreira in Mpumalanga; Steve Biko hospital, Charlotte Maxeke hospital and Thembisa hospital in Gauteng; Greys hospital in KwaZulu-Natal; Pelonomi in the Free State; Kimberly hospital; Livingstone hospital in Eastern Cape and Tygerberg in the Western Cape.

Regarding movement and trade with China, Mkhize said the country was guided by the WHO which has maintained its recommendations that there should be no restrictions on travel and trade.

Meanwhile, work is underway to develop a vaccine and the WHO is also working with networks of researchers and other experts to coordinate global work on surveillance, epidemiology, modelling, diagnostics, clinical care and treatment, and other ways to identify, manage and limit onward transmission of the disease.