The Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize, announced this during a media briefing on Thursday evening 12 March 2020.  Mkhize says after a series of tests conducted on the 32-year-old man the department had to withdraw the case and declare him negative. He says such mistakes sometimes happen and he further apologised to the citizens. He asks South Africans to bear with them. 

This now means that the total number of confirmed cases in South Africa have declined to 16. The 32-year-old man from the Free State was announced positive after he went to a private institution for testing and his results came back negative. It was alleged that he came into contact with a businessman who returned from abroad.

Up until now, all 16 confirmed cases in South Africa were recorded after people returned from overseas - either from European countries such as Italy, or from the United States of America.

On Twitter, Mkhize says there were 17 confirmed cases of the virus after four new cases were reported Thursday morning. “But we have subsequently found that the Free State case, which initially tested positive earlier, we have subsequently found is negative". 

This is a developing story.

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