SAMA: You must show symptoms for testing
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) says only people showing three out of the five coronavirus symptoms will be tested.
SAMA chairperson Angelique Coetzee says in future it will no longer be a prerequisite for a person to have been in contact with someone who has the virus.
"Now you must have three of the five symptoms, it is the fever, dry cough, not the flame cough that comes from the sinuses and proper body pain. When we talk about a temperature it must be 38 and more.”
Coetzee says the limit to testing is being done to prevent a patient from getting false-negative results.
She explains that a patient might test negative for the virus because they don't have enough virus infections in or the back of the throat.
"So you will go out and think ‘I'm fine’ and in the interim go out and give it to other people," says Coetzee.