News24 reports that according to Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, "very few" SA National Defence Force (SANDF) members have been infected with Covid-19, but she has declined to indicate how many.
"It is not in our interest to disclose such numbers," Mapisa-Nqakula said in response to a question posed by the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans on Wednesday. Of the SANDF members infected, there has apparently been a 90% recovery rate. "We have not as yet have had any deaths," Mapisa-Nqakula reported, adding that most of the soldiers who had tested positive were asymptomatic. Soldiers who tested positive were placed under quarantine. President Cyril Ramaphosa has deployed the entire SANDF in aid of the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. While military personnel have been deployed to assist the police in enforcing the lockdown, the SANDF's auxiliary services are also expected to aid in other ways, for instance, the provision of field hospitals.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Gerber at News24
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