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The cabinet is expected to hold an urgent meeting on Monday to discuss the outcome of the emergency meeting of the national coronavirus command council on Sunday, said Cabinet spokeswoman Phumla Williams.
There is growing speculation about a possible liquor sale ban, as hospitals, particularly in eThekwini and Cape Town, are at full capacity and struggling to cope with the influx of new Covid-19 cases. If the cabinet decides on new restrictions, President Cyril Ramaphosa, as is often the case, will announce them in a televised address to the nation.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has called for stricter measures to curb the spread of infections, which has already hit the economy. “We must warn South Africans that we will have to review current restrictions and consider new measures to ensure that we curb this alarming rate of spread,” he said recently.
The health department reports that as of Sunday there were just over 1 million positive cases in South Africa with 26,735 deaths and 9,502 new cases in the last 24 hours. The sharp rise in infections has been driven by a new variant of Covid-19 that is more transmissible, although Wits University vaccine professor Shabir Madhi does not believe this is the main reason for the escalation.
Instead, he attributes the increase to the rampant occurrence of unventilated indoor gatherings. He said there is an urgent need to impose more restrictions on such meetings.
Eastern Cape passed the peak
The principal investigator and statistician of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ridhwaan Suliman, told NewsRoom Africa that it appears that the Eastern Cape has passed the peak of its second wave, but this is not the case at the national level. Cases in the Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, the most populous provinces, continue to increase fairly rapidly.
The television channel reported that the National Union of Education, Health and Allied Workers will meet today with Mkhize to discuss the tension that health workers are experiencing.
Bloomberg reports that the government is considering reinstating a total ban on the sale of liquor. The ban could start Tuesday and last until midnight on January 10, said someone familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity because the information is not public and a final decision has not been made.
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