Eastern Cape B&Bs offer quarantine facilities

With the tourism industry in tatters amid the Covid-19 pandemic, B&B owners in the Eastern Cape have offered their establishments as quarantine and self-isolation facilities.

Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency CEO Vuyani Dayimani conceded that the effects of the respiratory disease outbreak would be felt long after the wave of global pandemic had receded.

This comes as Germany and Brazil join the list of countries repatriating their citizens from SA during the 21-day national lockdown.

“Tourists make up a large pool of the success stories of the South African tourism sector. In an effort to retain our loyal markets, the country and province has been working with numerous stakeholders, including embassies, to ensure safe repatriation of tourists already on our shores as well as devising flexible postponement and cancellation policies where necessary.

“Related to this, the sector also understands that everyone is going through the same catastrophic challenges. We are all playing our part to flatten the curve by offering tourism establishments as quarantine and self-isolation facilities,” Dayimani said.

Measures were in place to ensure the tourism sector survived the pandemic, he added.

“These include the R200m relief fund meant to assist small, micro and medium enterprises, as well as measures under the Unemployment Insurance Fund for bigger businesses.

“A unanimous message to domestic and international travellers not to cancel but only to postpone their trips to the country  is encouraged and continuously shared.

“This applies to both tourism services rendered by government institutions and privately owned establishments,” he said.

The 11 German tourists and nine German students who were under quarantine in Chintsa near East London and Mthatha were repatriated last week after testing negative for the virus.

MEC Sindiswa Gomba said a man from Unit P in Mdantsane, who was initially feared to have the virus after coming back from an overseas trip, had also been tested negative.

Gomba was alerted by a ward councillor that the man was coughing a lot. She deployed officials to have him tested, but could not get hold of him on the first day. This created panic as it was thought the man had run away, putting people's lives at risk.

“It was a lie that he had run away. He just had flu and wanted to monitor it first before he could be tested,” she said.

Gomba said they had started with the rollout of a huge testing campaign, which President Cyril Ramaphosa had announced the whole nation would embark on, by testing people in townships and villages.

“We are taking every measure to ensure that we flatten the curve by testing people who might have symptoms and those they came in contact with.

“Starting Monday we will visit areas that have lots of people in the five most populated districts,” she said, urging people to keep a one-metre physical distance, wear a  mask, practise good personal hygiene and get tested for the virus.

The MEC said after the German tourists received their health clearance they had worked with the German embassy and the Western Cape government to get home.

German ambassador to SA Martin Schäfer said the emabassy was working on  repatriating between 7,000 and 9,000 citizens.

This does not include the estimated 50,000 German citizens living in SA, he added.

On Wednesday, 321 Brazil nationals left for home from the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

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