Health Minister @DrZweliMkhize is briefing health workers who are part of the South African Medical Association in Pretoria now. He will be answering questions from many doctors and addressing their concerns. 
@DrZweliMkhize says he hopes to leave with suggestions and proposals that will make it easier for us to deal with this challenge of the COVID-19. #FightCOVID19
"We are today 14 days since the first patient was identified...at that time, we had been talking Coronavirus but we had not seen a patient inside our borders," @DrZweliMkhize says.
#FightCOVID19 @DrZweliMkhize says the real issue now is that Coronavirus has arrived in South Africa 14 days ago...as up to last night, we had 150. By tomorrow, we would have gone much higher. The reality for us is that we need to be working together to deal with this issue.
"The National Command Council has been formed. The different opposition parties have come unanimously to say this is now time for politics..." @DrZweliMkhize says. #FightCOVID19
#FightCOVID19 @DrZweliMkhize: "From where we sit, we met taxi organisations, various other leaders...All of those have been very supportive and therefore the issue is how can we make sure everybody spreads the message."
#FightCOVID19 @DrZweliMkhize "We are going to have to face up to a number of lessons from various countries...but we can behave in a away that can change the course of this infection."
#FightCOVID19 @DrZweliMkhize says there is a lot of speculation out there...At the moment there is no vaccine available.
#FightCOVID19 @DrZweliMkhize says, "Government has now come together to work with private hospitals...We are looking at possibilities of (private facilities) assisting with quarantines."
#FightCOVID19 @DrZweliMkhize: "We have also started negotiating with various hotels around international airports so we are able to quarantine them (international travelers) in those hotels."
@DrZweliMkhize says the real challenges are how do we manage a lot of issues.
"When we talk about communities out there, to send information for communities to get educated is very important." #FightCOVID19
"When we talk about communities out there, to send information for communities to get educated is very important." #FightCOVID19
@DrZweliMkhize asks doctors, "How do we ourselves avoid getting exposed?"
#FightCOVID19 @DrZweliMkhize says the real war right now is the tracing of contacts. "We have recruited close to 2000 tracers who are coordinating the system so that we are ultimately able to do this quickly," he says.
#FightCOVID19 "This is hard combat time...It's up to each one of us to make sure we reduce the fatalities," @DrZweliMkhize says.
@DrZweliMkhize says at one point, the NICD hotline for #CoronavirusInSA reached 103k in one day, but many of them were pranks to see if it was working. He cautioned against this as it may be blocking someone who really needs help. #FightCOVID19
