Coronavirus: South Africa declares national disaster

South Africa has imposed travel restrictions after confirming 61 cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday as it declared a national disaster.

"This will enable us to have an integrated and coordinated disaster management mechanism that will focus on preventing and reducing the outbreak of this virus. We will also be able to set up emergency rapid and effective response systems to mitigate the severity of its impact," President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday night.

The strict travel rules will affect foreign nationals from high-risk countries including Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Germany, the US, the UK and China, and are effective from Wednesday.

“We have cancelled visas and previously granted visas are revoked,” he said.

He announced several other measures including closure of schools from Wednesday and banning of all gatherings of more than 100 people in an effort to curb spread of the new coronavirus.

Schools will be closed from Wednesday March 18 and will remain closed “until after the Easter weekend”.

The South African leader told the nation that the number of coronavirus cases was “expected to rise in the coming days and weeks”.

“Initially it was people who have travelled outside the country, especially Italy. It is concerning now that we are dealing with internal transmission of the virus,” he said.

Next week's Human Rights Day celebrations, a major event in the South African calendar, has also been put off.

Mr Ramaphosa also encouraged South Africans to refrain from travel to high-risk countries, and said that non-essential domestic travel, particularly via plane, train and taxi, was discouraged.

"Never before in the history of our democracy has our country been confronted with such a severe situation," he said.