The first confirmed case of coronavirus in the country does not mean that Covid-19 is currently spreading in South African communities, noted the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The Institute of Race Relations has written to the chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Amending Section 25 of the Constitution to suspend and postpone all the committee’s planned public hearings.

“It is vitally important that these public hearings should immediately be halted and postponed until such time as South Africa’s health services are confident of their capacity to limit the transmission of this highly contagious virus and so prevent a Covid-19 pandemic in the country,” reads part of the letter.