Five people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Limpopo are being treated at the Modimolle MDR Hospital.

The patients are asymptotic, meaning they have displayed no signs of the virus thus far.

Among them is a 30-year-old man from Gauteng who tested positive last week but failed to self-isolate. Instead, he travelled to his hometown in Mopani.

“He has since been arrested and taken to an isolation site at the Modimolle MDR TB Hospital. The tracer team are busy tracing his contacts in order to ensure that they are screened and tested,” said the office of health MEC Phophi Ramathuba. 

Meanwhile, the province reported its first coronavirus recovery case on Monday.

Ramathuba said a 28-year-old doctor who was the first positive confirmed case in the province after his return from Europe had since tested negative for the virus.

The doctor had self-quarantined after returning from an overseas trip.

Limpopo now has 13 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, including the recovered patient who has now been excluded from the national statistics.

“Of all the cases, Limpopo has only one case which is suspected to be a local transmission. Further investigations are ongoing to ascertain this fact,” said Ramathuba’s office.

The health department said three people were a family from the Western Cape family that had travelled to Europe and upon return had self-isolated at a farm. The other three were Japanese nationals who had travelled home. One was an Australian national who had also travelled home and a Zimbabwean national who recently arrived in SA.

In the Capricorn district, four cases were recorded.

The Vhembe district recorded two cases.