Mbali Ntuli Tests Positive For Covid-19
Democratic Alliance (DA) politician Mbali Ntuli has announced that she has contracted Covid-19.
Ntuli who is a DA leadership hopeful said while her worst symptoms have passed, she was still battling some aches and a tight chest.
She is a member of the KwaZulu Natal legislature and former DA Youth leader. Ntuli announced the news on Twitter on Tuesday telling her followers on the microblogging site that she had been infected. She went on to urge people who were at Musgrave mall last week to get tested since she had gone there to buy some books.
Ntuli said she will be taking a bit of a break from her DA election campaign while she is in self-isolation.
In an interview with News24, Ntuli said she realised something was wrong last week when she started feeling sick.
Ntuli said, “I never get sick but I woke up last week and couldn’t move off my bed, my chest felt like it had an elephant on top of it, and when my daughter came to hug me I couldn’t pick her up.”
She told the publication that she decided to get tested after initially assuming that it was a 24-hour bug.
Ntuli described feeling aches and tingles all over her body, with her chest and back the most affected, as well as shivers from feeling cold.
A number of public figures including three premiers – David Makhura of Gauteng, Alan Winde of the Western Cape and Professor Job Mokgoro of North West – have all tested positive, with the latter being hospitalised for a brief period last week.
North West Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Gordon Kegakilwe and the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Ricardo Mthembu have both died after contracting the virus.
Ntuli told the publication that she waited more than three hours to be tested for Covid-19 at a private facility in KwaZulu-Natal, despite being the only one in the queue set up in the parking lot. She was given Panados and told to self-isolate.
Ntuli said she also used homemade concoctions to treat her symptoms, and that while she was feeling better, her chest remained tight and her eyes were sore.
She was also finally able to speak this week despite a sore throat.