IN QUOTES | 'Coronavirus does not look at your colour or your passport': Zweli Mkhize

Health minister Zweli Mkhize has advised against the spread of fake news and discrimination cast at those who have coronavirus.

Speaking at Thursday’s press briefing, Mkhize said fake news and discrimination were far more dangerous than the pandemic outbreak itself.

Here are five quotes from Mkhize's address.

Fake news

“We need to deal with the myths going around saying the darker you are you won't get the virus. Coronavirus does not look at the pigmentation of an individual. Please do not spread such fake news.”

Discrimination

“Coronavirus doesn’t look at your passport, doesn’t look at your nationality, doesn’t look at your circumstances, whether you’re rich or poor, doesn’t care whether you’re within one metre of somebody sneezing, a droplet of infection will hit you.”

Fighting the fight

“The real fight that’s confronting us is the fight of trying to reduce the number of infections, break the cycle of infection and make sure whoever is sick recovers and make sure South Africans can look back and say there was coronavirus but we survived.”

First negative, now positive

“We can’t explain why some tests come out positive then later negative. We released the result of positive, we then did additional verification, which confirmed it was negative.

“It’s not a crisis, it happens every now and then. This particular patient is now negative after verification.”

Security at quarantine site in Limpopo

“Army will guard the area to ensure that there’s no direct contact with those outside (the resort). This place is a quarantine area.

“No media is allowed. No flyover is allowed, so you can’t even send a drone out here to come and take photos. You can’t do anything. No other people can come in. The police are here.”