Dear friends,
We are looking forward to hosting you on March 17-18 at the Durban ICC for WFS Africa, our first-ever African summit, which we are confident will mark a true turning-point that will benefit the African football industry as a whole.
At World Football Summit, the safety and health of our participants and partners is our number one priority.
That’s why we want to provide you with some relevant information about the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019.
On Thursday March 5, South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that a suspected case of COVID-19 has tested positive. The patient is a 38-year-old male who travelled to Italy with his wife. They were part of a group of 10 people and they arrived back in South Africa on March 1, 2020.
The Emergency Operating Centre (EOC) has identified the contacts and the tracer team has been deployed to KwaZulu-Natal with epidemiologists and clinicians from NICD. The man, his wife and two young children are in self-quarantine in their home where they receive visits from medical staff daily.
The doctor who attended to the man has also placed himself in self-quarantine. National Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize addressed the media today and said no other case has been confirmed yet.
The WFS team is in close contact with both the South African and the KwaZulu-Natal health authorities, both of whom have confirmed that “at this point, there is no risk of the virus spreading to the general public”.
Dr. Zweli Mkhize emphasised during the press briefing today that South Africa is following all the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to prevent infection spread and that currently there is no need to stop major activities taking place.
Importantly, WFS has been informed that a meeting has been called by the National Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane on Monday to officially make a statement on hosting of major events/conferences in the country.
In view of further assurance given by the President of the Republic of South Africa His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa and the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Province Sihle Zikalala, World Football Summit does not foresee any impacts for the upcoming WFS Africa.
However, we are taking all the necessary measures together with KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government, our partners and the ICC Durban staff to guarantee your safety. These include:
- A guide advising on how to monitor your health and the precautions to be taken will be included in the WFS Africa Welcome Kit.
- Hand sanitizers provided at all entrances of the venue, in addition to hand sanitation already installed in all toilets and washrooms of the hotel.
- Regular disinfection of all sanitary facilities of the conference venue.
- A medical team located onsite and a mobile rapid response team.
Other measures, such as testing/screening attendees at the venue entrance, will also be adopted.
In addition, we kindly ask any participants who have visited any of the following regions in the previous 14 days to please notify us as soon as possible:
- Mainland China
- South Korea
- Iran
- Northern Italy
We will continue to monitor the situation closely together with our partners, the South African and KZN authorities. We will update you immediately should there be any significant change.
You can be absolutely sure that no risks will be taken.
Please note that until now no speaker, partner or exhibitor has withdrawn and therefore the Conference Porgramme as well as the different networking activities remain as planned.
If you have any questions regarding this or any other issue, please contact us at:
africa@worldfootballsummit.com