Big business travel and tourism industry events are expected to be cancelled over the next few days following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement earlier this evening (Sunday, March 15) that gatherings of over 100 people will be banned with immediate effect.

He addressed the nation after a special Cabinet meeting – which included “wide consultation” – was held to determine South Africa’s response to the now 61 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus.

Ramaphosa declared a State of Emergency in the country – according to the Disaster Management Act – which includes imposing a travel ban, effective March 18, for foreign visitors coming into South Africa from high-risk countries.

These include the United Kingdom, the US, China, Iran, South Korea, Italy, Germany and Spain. “Visas issued to visitors from these countries will be cancelled and new visas will not be issued to those countries until such time as the pandemic is under control in those countries,” explained the President.

He added that South African citizens returning from medium-risk countries would be subject to additional screening.

Ramaphosa acknowledged the severe impact this would have on tourism but added that urgent and drastic measures were needed to limit the impact of the virus. “To that end, we are looking at several financial packages to help industries that are hard hit by the travel ban.”

There will be a ministerial briefing in Pretoria tomorrow, with the respective ministers expected to provide more details on how this State of Emergency will affect their portfolios.