Twitter weighs in on decision to use Limpopo resort as quarantine site

Social media users have reacted to news that a resort in Limpopo will be the location for a coronavirus quarantine centre.

On Thursday, Health minister Zweli Mkhize confirmed that The Ranch Resort near Polokwane in Limpopo will be used as the place to accommodate a group of South Africans who will be repatriated from Wuhan, China later on Friday.

South Africans from the Covid-19 epicentre in Wuhan will be quarantined at the resort where security has also been beefed up.

SowetanLIVE reported that the police and the military had taken over the four-star resort and have blockaded the main road leading to the venue as they prepare to host about 122 citizens who are expected to land in the country on Friday.

Staff at the resort have been placed on leave for the next 21 days while patrons who were booked in at the hotel were asked to leave on Thursday morning.

The number of people who have tested positive for the virus in SA was revised down to 16 on Thursday.

This after the 17th person, from Free State, who was reportedly the first South African to have contracted coronavirus without travelling outside the country, tested negative.

TimesLIVE reported that Mkhize said on Thursday night that the man was tested at a private facility in the Free State.

He said that because the man “did not fit the case definition”, the test was done again at the National Health Laboratory Service in Johannesburg. That test came back negative.

On social media, some responded to the decision to quarantine returning South Africans at the Limpopo hotel with shock and anger, which saw the hashtag #LimpopoNotaDumpingSite trending.

Here is a snapshot of what some tweeps had to say.