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By Bloomberg 
7h ago
By Antony Sguazzin
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has dissolved the government’s scientific advisory committee on the coronavirus, some of whose members have openly disagreed with state measures to combat the disease.
Members of the Covid-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee were informed by letter this week that the group is being reconfigured, Francois Venter of the University of the Witwatersrand, and Glenda Gray, executive director of the South African Medical Research Council, confirmed by text message Saturday.
The dissolution follows Mkhize’s announcement on Sept. 14 that he would reconstitute the committee, News24 reported, citing the one-paragraph letter.
The 51-member committee, headed by Salim Abdool Karim, was created earlier this year to advise Mkhize on how to handle the pandemic.
Some council members, including Gray and Venter, disagreed with the government’s decision to curb economic activity in a bid to slow the spread of the virus. Gray’s criticism of some of the measures as “unscientific” in May led Mkhize to accuse her of lying and sparked a dispute between the government and the academic community. Shabir Madhi, another MAC member who leads the South African arm of a vaccine trial, has also been critical.
For more information on the disagreement, click here.
South Africa had 668,529 cases and 16,312 deaths as of Friday, giving it the highest number of infections in Africa. More than 4.1 million people have been tested, out of a population of 59 million. The rate of coronavirus infections has noticeably slowed in the last month.
The Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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